In The Moonlight
by Starkittie
Summary: They met and instantly connected in just 140 characters even though she didn't really know who he was. Will they fizzle out and go their separate ways once she finds out and their parents have their say? Or will their love bloom and grown In The Moonlight...
1. Chapter 1

**And here I am with a brand new story for you. Like the last few, I've already finished it and will be posting a new chapter every week or so. (PS-The bold names are twitter handles. The 'at symbol' wouldn't take.) Well, without further ado, ENJOY! =^.^=**

"Okay, I gotta get off here, it's almost time for the show. Meet me on twitter." My sister Annie said to me seconds before she hung up. My sister, well, technically my half–sister, we share our dad, was a huge fan of some wrestling show they came on twice a week. She joined twitter about a year ago when she realized that she could send messages to some of her favorite wrestlers.

And since twitter was free, I got convinced that I needed to join as well. The two of us talked on their all the time. It was much cheaper than our long–distance phone bills.

My sister and I were super close even though we weren't fully raised together. Annie was born and raised in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, where Ellen, her mom and our dad lived at the time and she still lives there. I, on the other hand, was born and raised in Stockbridge, Georgia. It's a small town just outside of Atlanta.

When my dad divorced Ellen and moved back to Georgia where he was born and raised, he met my mom and as they say, the rest is history. They even named to me Georgia after the place they met and fell in love. Yes, cheesy I know but it is what it is.

I headed back to my bedroom and booted up my laptop while I changed for bed. I flipped on the TV to one of the_ educational_ channels that I love. Annie would watch her wrestling thing, I would watch whatever I wanted and we would talk till midnight.

I climbed into bed and pulled up my twitter timeline. I smiled when I saw Annie was already into the swing, excited that someone named **JohnCena** was starting the show. I just shook my head and let her know I was on.

**crossroads4me**: okay **physioinstlmo** I'm here.

I went and checked my e-mail as I waited for her to reply. I checked back a few seconds later and saw that she had.

_** physioinstlmo**: **crossroads4me** OMG sis! U should be watching tonight. Good matches._

**crossroads4me**: **physioinstlmo** Not tonight. The show about medieval England I've been waiting for is on.

_** physioinstlmo**: **crossroads4me** Okay, but you're missing a good one._

Our conversation went on for most of the night like that. She talked about her show I would tell her about mine. She would tell me about her latest physical therapy client and I told her about my preschool group that I ran every Monday at the local library that I worked at.

About an hour and a half into our conversation, my computer made a noise letting me know I had a new e-mail. I flip to that screen to see that I had a new follower on Twitter to add to my whole 15 that I already had. This was someone named 'C. Rubio' with the twitter name **_ GALegacy_**. Neither one of those things meant anything to me. This have to be one of Annie's wrestling buddies that found out I was her sister.

Since I only followed a few people on my own, a couple of my favorite authors and actors/actresses and my favorite bands, I tried to re-follow everyone that followed me. So far, most of those people had been my sister's friends. I headed back to my timeline and followed this person back.

When I refreshed the page, I saw Annie asking this person who they thought had the better dropkick in something called 'Legacy'. They talked back and forth for a moment. It seemed as though Annie thought someone named Randy had the best one while 'C. Rubio' argued on the side of someone named Cody. I just let them talk it out. I shook my head when I saw that I had a new mention. It was probably Annie asking me to settle the score. I always sided with her because normally, I had no idea what they were talking about. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it was from someone else.

_** GALegacy**: **crossroads4me** Hello :)_

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** Hi there. Thanks for the follow earlier. :)

_** GALegacy**: **crossroads4me** Thanks for following back. It's nice to find fellow wrestling fans._

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** Oh sorry. That's physioinstlmo that you're thinking of. I haven't really been a fan since I was a kid.

_** GALegacy**: **crossroads4me** Oh. I assumed with that name you are fan of Cody Rhodes._

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** I'm not sure what me feeling like I'm at crossroads in my life has to do with this Cody Rhodes but I guess that's a no.

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** Plus, I don't even know who that is so I couldn't tell you if I like him or not.

I could tell that this conversation wasn't going the way this person expected. I was sure I was going to lose them as a follower before the night was out. I was surprised when they wrote back a few seconds later.

_** GALegacy**: **crossroads4me** So you really don't watch wrestling at all?_

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** Nope. To be honest, I haven't seen anything wrestling related since I was a little kid. Annie loves it though.

_** GALegacy**: **crossroads4me** Annie?_

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** Oh, Annie is my sister. The one you are talking to about the dropflip?

_** GALegacy**: **crossroads4me** Oh. And I think you meant dropkick their, sweetness. ;)_

I have to laugh at that. I also had to pause for a second. why was I getting butterflies at this person calling me an affectionate name? I had to check something before we continue. I sent them a direct message.

To: **GALegacy**: Sorry to pry, but are you a guy or a girl?

To my surprise, the answer quickly.

_From: Not prying at all. I'm a guy._

To: Oh. Good. :) I was worried about myself for a sec.

_From: Really? Why?_

To: Don't get weirded out, but I like you calling me sweetness. My grandfather used to call me that.

_From: That doesn't weird me out. I feel honored being compared to someone you obviously love a lot._

_From: Can I ask you a question in return?_

To: Sure. Ask away. :)

_From: What's your name? GA Cooper doesn't tell me much._

To: I guess not. It's Georgia. Just like the state.

_From: What a beautiful name. Are you from Georgia to? HaHa._

To: Well actually, I am. :) I live in a small town right outside of Atlanta.

_From: What are the odds? I live just outside of Atlanta too._

To: Oh wow! Small world! Which city?

_From: I'm from Marietta._

To: I'm right on the other side of the city from you. I'm from Stockbridge.

_From: That's not too far away then, huh?_

To: Hold on. I never got your name. C doesn't help me much either. :)

_From: HaHa! I bet it doesn't. My name is Cody._

To: Cody. So that's why you are arguing for that Cody guy earlier. You share a name.

_From: Yeah, I guess you could say that. So is Annie your only sibling?_

The two of us talked about everything. I found out that, like me he had half siblings too. A half–brother and two half–sister that were both older than him. I told him how my dad divorced Annie's mom when she was three and had me two years later.

I told him about working at the library and how I loved the kids programs that I got to run. He told me that he did, what amounted to 'public relations' for the company he worked for. He was one of the many faces that put themselves out there in front of the people for his company. He said that getting to travel and seeing different places, meeting different people was the best part of the job.

I remember telling Annie good night and what felt like 10 minutes later, I looked up at my clock when the one I had down in the living room chimed. It was 3AM. Cody and I had been talking nonstop for nearly 5 hours.

To: Not that I'm not loving talking to you Cody but it's 3AM here. I have to get up in a few hours for work. :(

_From: Is it that late? Oh hell Georgia. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you up._

To: It's okay. I enjoy talking to you. I lost track of time. :)

I decided to put it out there because I kind of wanted to be his friend.

To: I hope that you and I can talk again sometime.

_From: Oh I think you can count on that. I guess it's a good thing you have to go cause they just called my flight._

To: I have good timing then, huh? :D

_From: That you do. :D Good night Georgia._

To: Nighty night Cody. Have a safe flight.

_From: Sweet dreams. ;)_

I logged off and shut down my computer with a smile. It seems as though I had made a friend tonight. Cody had made me feel so comfortable that I had told him nearly everything about myself. And so had he. We knew each other's favorite bands, the cars we d**r**ove and what our favorite foods were. We learned that we both had dark hair and blue eyes, were about the same age, both liked the color blue and both loved the Braves.

I turned off the light and snuggled into my pillow, still smiling as I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, I turned on my phone while I finished my coffee. I was surprised when my phone made a noise that I had never heard before. It was informing me that I had a DM on twitter.

I pulled up twitter on my phone. I found myself grinning when I saw who it was from.

_From: **GALeagcy** I just landed and wanted to say good morning. Have a wonderful day, sweetness. :)_

I sent him back a 'you too'. Yeah, today was going to be a wonderful day.

**So let me know if you want to read more. Hit that little button and tell me what'cha think! Thanks! =^.^=**


	2. Chapter 2

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to _psion53, Icequeenxx_ and the mysterious _Guest_. You guys rock! \m/.\m/ Here is chapter 2. Enjoy!**

I grinned as my phone went off in my pocket. It made that little_ ding_ that I was coming to love so much. It was 2:30 PM on Thursday at the library. It was only me and Rachel working and she was currently putting away returns. I did worry about checking my phone. I clicked on the message that had been sent.

_From: __**GALegacy**__ What are you up to? :)_

Cody. It had been like this since we_ met_ two weeks ago. We were constantly talking and sending messages back and forth. The two of us had become pretty close.

To: Just sitting here at work. What about you? :)

_From: Just finished my workout._

_ To: Oh really? What did you work today?_

_ From: My abs_

Before I could respond, he surprised me.

_From: Wanna see?_

My first instinct was to scream YES, but I hesitated for a moment. This was the first time we ever shared photos. But I really wanted to see how the real image compared to the one I had built in my head.

To: Sure :)

A few moments later, my phone _dinged_ again. I looked in my mentions this time.

_**GALegacy**__: __**crossroads4me**__ Post workout…_

I clicked on the link and nearly dropped the phone. He was shirtless and wearing nylon navy blue pants sitting low on his hips. The picture cut off his head but it showed him from the shoulders to just below the top of his pants. He had taken a picture in the mirror of the gym. I guess so he could get just the right shot.

I just kept staring at the picture in awe. I couldn't seem to help it. Cody had to have the most perfectly sculpted body I had ever seen. Perfect shoulders, perfect chest, ripped abs and that nice little 'V' cut right at his hips was showing. God bless but he was sexy as hell. To be honest, I had pictured a guy, normal, average build, average height with dark hair and blue eyes. Nothing special. Except to me. I didn't really give a rat's ass what he looked like. He was a wonderful guy and that's all that mattered to me. This deliciousness was just an added bonus.

To: Oh

I didn't really know what else to say. I didn't think there were enough adequate words to describe how much I really, really liked the picture.

_From: Was the picture bad? Do you want me to send another one?_

To: No. That was fine…is that really you? You and not some airbrushed fitness model? :)

_From: No, sweetness. That's all me. :) I've worked really hard for this body._

To: I'm sure you have. It looks amazing.

_From: Not hot or sexy?_

The two of us had been hinting at this casual fun, flirting thing for the last 3 or 4 days. I was never a big flirt and hated when guys normally tried. But with Cody, I loved every second of it.

To: Oh yeah. A whole lot of both. And I think you know you're sexy as hell.

_From: Thank you. I'm going to take that as a complement from you, sweetness. :)_

To: Haha! I don't mind you taking it that way.

To: I guess it's my turn, huh?

_From: You don't have to Georgia. I know you're at work. ;)_

To: Ha. Ha. You only wish I was going to send you the kind of picture.

_From: :)_

I had to smile. If I knew him half as well as I thought I might, he was going to laugh at the picture I was about to send him. I click the picture and quickly sent it.

**crossroads4me**: **GALegacy** For you…

I laughed to myself as I saw the link to the picture of my hand laying flat on the desk. A few seconds later, he responded.

_From: Hahaha! I love it! Best picture ever! :D_

To: Glad you like it. I've always been told I was very photogenic. :)

_From: Haha! All kidding aside, you have very beautiful hands._

To: Why, thank you, sir. :)

We talked for a few more minutes before he had to go. We said our goodbyes with the promise that we would talk later in the evening.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Meanwhile: In St. Louis…

Annie and Lori came back into the office of St. John's Rehabilitation where she and Lori were physical therapist. St. John's was one of the upper scale, come to your home, PT companies. They worked with a lot of pro athletes and high profile people within the city of St. Louis and surrounding cities.

Annie, herself, had worked with a few CEOs of major companies and a couple players from the St. Louis Rams football team. She loved every second of it. Not the high profile clients and their money, that meant nothing to her. She truly loved her work. She loved helping people. There was nothing better than working with someone fresh off an injury or surgery and watching them gain their full strength and go back to the job they themselves loved.

Annie and Lori had just cleared the door when Tom, her boss, called Annie into his office. She smiled at him and she plopped down in the chair across from him.

"What do you have for me, Tom?" She asked. He smiled back as he put some papers into a folder for her.

"I picked you Annie, because you have the best track record with difficult patients." He handed the folder over. "He's gone through five therapists in the last week." She flipped open the file.

"Wow! Five in one week? That's got to be some kind of record." She read through the report. The client was listed as a pro–athlete with the recent knee injury. One thing she noticed wasn't on there was a name. "Okay, I'll take it but where's his name?" It listed everything from his age to his weight and height but there was no name. Tom shrugged.

"When we got the case, we were asked to withhold his name. He wants no one to take the case based on who he is." He slid another piece of paper across his desk towards her. "You also need to sign this confidentiality agreement. The company he works for is requesting." Annie didn't hesitate. She leaned in and signed her name. It wasn't the first time she had signed one of these agreements. "You need to be there in an hour. He lives in that big gated community in St. Charles." Annie glanced at her watch. She had just enough time to gather her equipment and make it out there. She stood up. "Good luck, Annie. He's gonna be a tough one. Don't be upset if he sends you away."

45 minutes later, Annie was pulling up outside of a big gate complete with a guard. He stepped out of his guard _ house_ and stepped up to her car as she rolled down the window.

"Can I help you with something?" He asked as she smiled up at him.

"Sure." She handed him her order that Tom had given her. "I have an appointment at this address." He looked over it and stepped back in his booth and made a call.

"Yes, sir it's Derek at the gate. There's a young lady here from St. John's Rehab…" He paused. "Yes, sir. I'll send her over." Derek handed her her paper and pointed her in the direction of the house she was looking for. A few seconds later, she was sitting in her car staring up at the amazing house after she had pulled into the driveway behind the shiny black Hummer.

Annie shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Enough staring, she told herself, let's get the show on the road.

Randy Orton stood at the front window and watched the small navy blue SUV pulled into his driveway. He sighed deeply, wondering what kind of blithering idiot there were going to send him this time. He had asked them to switch companies hoping this one would be better. The St. John's Rehabilitation was supposed to be one of the best in the Tri-Cities area.

He raised appreciative eyebrow as a twentysomething, from this far away, pretty damn fine young woman climbed out of the car. At least it wasn't like the 40-year-old guy they sent last time. The dumb ass was a self-professed wrestling_ expert_. Gary spent about half an hour telling Randy everything about the sport Randy grew up in before he lost his temper and told him to leave.

Randy limped to the front door and pulled it open as quiet as possible. He took the three steps slowly, ignoring to persistent pain in his right knee. Yeah, he was so kicking Swagger's ass when he got back. He was pretty positive that Swagger fucked up that move on purpose. Sure, Ted and Cody tried to cover the move but he had landed on Randy's right knee anyway and gave Cody a black eye and Ted a broken finger in the process.

When they had to nearly carry him to the back and the trainer/doctor had told him the diagnosis, he had nearly exploded. A month and a half at home and intense PT. Thank God his boys had clear heads or otherwise Swagger would have ended up in the ER.

Randy sucked and a silent breath as he took in the vision before him. His new PT was bent over, digging in her backseat. He couldn't help but enjoy the view of the perfect, heart–shaped ass in front of him. If the front of her was even half as nice as the back of her, he might actually start to enjoy his sessions.

Annie paused when she thought she heard the door open. When she didn't hear anything, she went back to putting the weights back in the bag that had fallen over on her drive. She leaned up and was just about to clear the door when someone spoke.

"Can I help you with that?" The sound of the deep male voice startled her. She jerked straight up, slamming her head into the hard doorjamb of the car. Her hand instantly went to the spot where her head connected with the metal. She could feel the knot already starting to form.

"Oh shit." Randy took a few steps forward, reaching out to her but dropping his hands at the last second, realizing it probably wasn't the best idea to grab someone you would never met before. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I thought you heard me. Are you okay?"

Annie turned around with her eyes still closed, rubbing her head. Even to the pounding in her head she had a distinct feeling that she knew this man's voice. She was 100% sure she had heard it before but for the life of her, she couldn't place it.

"Yeah, I think so. Minus this slight concussion I just gave myself." She laughed it off.

"Now I definitely have to carry your bag for you." He leaned in slightly and caught a whiff of her light, barely–there perfume. Oh man. She smelled like lilacs…and sin. It shot straight through him and pooled low in his belly. Man, this beautiful woman, was going to be trouble. Yeah, her _front_ more than matched the back. "As long as you don't crack your skull again, you should be fine."

Annie opened her eyes at that line. That's where she knew that voice from. It was the way he said the word skull. He sounded just like Randy Orton. Annie, who found she was staring at a white T-shirt covered chest, followed it up until she connected with the brilliant blue ones watching her. She hoped the surprise didn't show on her face. The reason it sounded like him is because it _was_ him. Randy Orton, Annie's very own personal dream was standing about a foot away from her. Mentally verifying that she wasn't drooling, she checked herself. No matter how gorgeous he looked standing in front of her, in the flesh, he was her patient. She had to be a professional. Even if she wanted to shove him into her backseat and strip him of every stitch of clothing he was wearing.

"I think I'm okay. Nothing a little Tylenol won't cure." She froze as his hand came up and removed her hand where it was still pressed against her crown. His oh so very warm hand replaced hers, moving gently across her scalp. Annie nearly closed her eyes on happy sigh as he touched her until he touched the spot. She flinched when he felt the bump forming there.

"You have a nice little lump forming there. Are you sure you're okay?" He asked again. She reached up and pulled his hand gently out of her hair and off her head before she did something completely unprofessional.

"I promise, I'm fine." She still had her hands wrapped around his wrist so he could still feel her warmth all the way up his arm. Then, she smiled at him. Randy was done. This woman, with hair the color of warm honey and eyes that sparkled like perfect emeralds was his future. He needed her with an intensity that shocked the hell out of him. Randy had never needed or wanted for that matter, a woman so badly before in his entire life. And odds were, he never would again. This time, he took a step back to keep himself from doing exactly what he wanted. Maybe he should at least find out her name before he made his move. He held out his hand.

"I'm Randy Or..."

"Randy Orton. Yes, I know who you are, sir. I'm a huge fan. It's a pleasure to meet you." Annie impressed herself with how normal she sounded. She couldn't help but smile at the surprised look on his face. Annie took his hand, squeezing gently. "I'm Annabel Cooper, your new PT. But you can call me Annie if you'd like."

Oh yes, he most definitely would like. He would like to whisper it against her heated naked, lilac scented skin and she writhed in ecstasy underneath him when he pinned her to his bed. The blood was starting to slowly drain out of his head. Before it decided to pool lower, he stepped back further away from her, slowly letting go of her hand in an almost caress.

"I'd have to say, the pleasure is all mine." They just stood there, watching each other for a few quiet and incredibly hot, tension filled moments. It took every ounce of Annie's willpower not to throw herself at him, coil herself around his delicious body, like the snake he portrayed and beg him to take her in the backseat of her car. She cleared her throat, praying that he couldn't see the look of raw lust dancing in her eyes.

"So, Mr. Orton, show me where you work out."

Randy was so tempted to show her his bedroom but thought better of it. He so wanted, okay, he absolutely needed to see her again and was afraid she wouldn't appreciate that. So he showed her his gym instead. And after a few more times of her calling him ' Mr. Orton' he finally convinced her to call him Randy.

His first session went well and went by way too quickly for his liking. Once the two of them got over the formalness, the two of them laughed and joked like old friends. They found out a lot about each other as well. He found out about her family. Her mother, her father, her stepmother and half sister that he could tell she absolutely adored.

Annie found out so much about Randy in the short time that they had spent together for his session. She learned about his family, his mother, father, sister and brother. She also learned about the friends he worked with and what he did on his days off. Beyond being a huge fan of his in ring persona, it turned out, she really liked the man he was away from it.

As Randy walked, or more limped, Annie to the door, he was struck by the realization as to why he enjoyed his time with Annie so much. Not only was she an extremely beautiful, incredibly intelligent woman, she was also a wrestling fan. But never once, despite being a fan, did she ask anything about his career. Annie didn't ask once about who he knew, who he hung out with, what it was like to take a bump, nothing. Everything he had told her, he had volunteered himself. He smiled at her back as they reached the door. Yeah, Annie was a keeper.

"Okay, so remember what I said." Annie turned to look at Randy. "For tonight, prop it up and if it looks like it's swelling any, ice it." She smiled up at him. "Will I be coming back tomorrow or will you be asking for one of my co-workers?" He laughed a little before he got serious.

"No Annabel Cooper, I don't want anyone else. I only want you." He took her hand. "Have dinner with me on Friday. Come back here after you get off and I'll make you dinner." Annie hesitated for a moment. As badly as she wanted to say yes, she knew she could get in some serious trouble with her company.

"Oh, Randy. I so want to say yes…"

"Then say it, Annie." She looked up at him. He melted at the look in her amazing emerald eyes.

"I could lose my job, Randy." She said softly. He lifted her fingers to his lips.

"Don't tell anyone then, my beautiful Annabel. Just say yes." Randy kissed her knuckles softly. Annie's stomach flipped in her belly.

"Do these lines always work for the girls you bring home?" He smirked at her over her hand.

"I don't know. You're the first woman that has ever been in my home that have wanted to come back so badly." She grinned at him and lost the ability to say no to the man.

"Will seven o'clock be okay?" He kissed her fingers again.

"Perfect."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Georgia dropped the phone down on the couch beside her. She had just spent the last two hours on the phone with Annie who was telling her all about her new client, Randy, who was apparently the sexiest man she had ever seen in person. Annie also dropped the bomb that this Randy had asked her to dinner on Friday.

I had scolded her about jeopardizing her job but she swore to me, Randy was more than worth it. We hung up with her promising me that she would be careful.

I smiled down at my phone when it beeped at me. Cody was right on time. Eight o'clock on the dot.

_From: Hey sweetness. How was your day?_

To: Very crazy. I'm tired but fifteen five-year-olds will do that to you. :)

_From: Haha. I'm sure you are tired._

To: How was your day, Cody?

_From: Not too bad. I missed talking to you. But at least I have tonight off so I won't miss you. :)_

To: *blushing* I missed talking to you too.

_From: So…do you think we could try something different tonight?_

To: What do you have in mind? ;)

_From: Not that. Not yet anyway. ;)_

_ From: I want to hear your voice._

To: Really? You do?

_From: Yes, I really do, sweetness. I want to see if the voice matches the beautiful picture you sent me._

Yesterday, I broke down and sent him the picture of me from earlier in the year. It was actually a picture of me and my mother from a party my dad had thrown. I was actually dressed up for a change. In turn, he sent me one of himself. We sent them via e-mail. Neither of us wanted all of our personal business on twitter for everyone to see.

The picture he had sent me was of him and his brother. From what I could see, Cody was around 6 foot tall with dark, nearly black hair, stunning, brilliant blue eyes and a sexy half smile that had me melting. I had to admit, Cody was easily the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I hope he was being honest about the things he told me. I didn't want things to end just because had lied to me. I could easily see myself falling hard for this man. I must have been quiet for too long.

_ From: Georgia? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you. We don't have to talk tonight._

To: Oh no Cody, it's not that_. I just got lost in my thoughts. I'd love to talk to you tonight._

_ From: I can't tell you how happy that makes me. But… I do have something to warn you about._

_ From: I don't want it to change anything between us._

My heart dropped. I just knew things had been too good to be true with us. I signed and sent my response.

To: I'm sure it's not that bad. You can tell me. :)

_From: I hope you still give me a chance but…I have a lisp._

I let out the breath I had been holding. I had been a little nervous that he was something major.

To: Really? That's it?

_From: That's it? It doesn't bother you?_

To: No. Not at all. Should it?

_From: It does some people._

To: I'm not those people, Cody. :)

_From: I know you're not, Georgia. I should have known better._

To: Haha. Yes, you should have.

I sent him another message with my number.

To: So, are you still gonna call? :)

About 10 seconds later, my phone rang. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm the butterflies fighting in my belly, and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

_"Hey there, sweetness."_ The butterflies fought harder at the sound of his voice. I didn't know what he was worried about. His lisp wasn't that bad at all.

"It's nice to put a voice with a face. And I was totally right."

_"Were you now? About what exactly?"_ I could hear the smile in his voice.

"I'm right about how sexy your voice really is. It's everything I expected it to be. I bet your pictures don't do you real justice either." Cody actually laughed this time.

_"I think I take a terrible picture but I guess, to each his own or her own, huh?"_

"Does that mean you're my own?" I teased.

_ "Do you want me to be, Georgia?"_ I literally melted down into the sofa at the way he lowered his voice when he said my name.

"Yeah. More than anything."

_"Does that mean you'll be mine too?"_

"You know I will."

_"Good."_ He was quiet for a second._ "So, what does the world's most beautiful librarian do when she has the night off?"_ I giggled at that comment. Giggled? What the…I didn't giggle. Oh man. I had never even met this man face-to-face and I already had it bad for him. I was falling for Cody. I was falling super hard and crazy fast. I just prayed he would be there to catch me.

Cody and I talked for the rest of the night. We talked about everything and nothing at all. We talked through me washing, drying and folding a load of laundry. I made and packed my lunch for the next day. I had even changed into my PJs and crawled into bed where I currently was. I had been fighting the yawns for the last thirty minutes. I didn't want to be sleepy. I wanted to stay up all night and talked to Cody but my body wanted sleep. I let a small yawn slipped, praying he wouldn't hear it. Wouldn't you know, he heard the whole thing.

_"I'm keeping you up aren't I, sweetness?"_

"I want to stay up. I wish I could stay up and talk to you all night. But…you won't let me will you?" He chuckled softly.

_"Nope. No way. I'm gonna get off here now so you can get some sleep."_

"I don't want you to go Cody."

_"I know. I don't want to go either but you have work tomorrow and I have kind of a busy day. I don't want you getting in trouble cause I didn't let you get any sleep."_ I sighed, defeated.

"Okay. But…can we talk again tomorrow?"

_"Of course. I wouldn't miss out on hearing your voice for anything. But for now, get some sleep, sweetness."_

"I will. Good night Cody."

_ "Good night Georgia. Sweet dreams."_

_**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**_


	3. Chapter 3

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to _psion53, Sultry Princess, smash07_ and the mysterious _Guest_. You guys rock! \m/.\m/ Here is chapter 3. Enjoy!**

Cody and I were on the phone constantly with each other. When either of us had a free moment, we were texting or calling the other.

It was Friday night and I was getting ready for my weekly dinner with my parents at their home a stone's throw away from Eagle's Landing Country Club. My parents still lived in the same extravagant house we had moved into when I was two and they still attended Sunday brunch at the club where, since I could walk, my mother had been planning my big elaborate future wedding. I really had no say in any of it. She had planned it to the 'T'. All I got a saying in was who my groom was and I'm not even sure I had a full say in that either. At least I wouldn't have to pay for all the stuff she wanted. I also knew my father wouldn't bat an eyelash at the price. He wouldn't think twice about paying for any whim or want that my mother had and not worry that he would break the bank.

Harrison Cooper was one of the owners and most successful partner of the international PR firm, Cooper, Steele and Gregory. He had worked with nearly every big-name company in at least thirty major countries. He had worked with everyone from small clothing companies in Germany to major sports franchises here in the US and even crowned heads of state all across the world. So yeah, mom and dad didn't worry much about money.

I was slipping on my shoes when my cell rang. I smiled as he looked at the screen and saw Cody's name flashing.

"Hello?" I said with a smile on my face.

_"Hey there, sweetness."_

"You have perfect timing. I was just heading out the door."

_"Really? On a Friday night? You must be going to party with some friends, huh?"_ I laughed.

"Yeah, nowhere as fun as that. I'm going to meet my parents."

_"Going out to dinner then?"_

"Ah…no." I was hesitant to tell Cody that my parents had a chef on staff, yeah, staff, that could make anything we wanted so we really didn't need to go out. I didn't want to be judged by who my father was or by the money we had. I hated that. "Just a quiet dinner at their home."

_"Sounds nice so I won't keep you. I just wanted to ask you something."_ I stepped out of my front door and locked it behind me.

"Ask away."

_"Well, I'm coming home late Tuesday night for a few days this and I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner with me on Wednesday?"_

"You mean like a real date? Where I get to see you in person, live and in color, sitting across from me?" I teased. Cody laughed.

_"Yes, sweetness. A real, live date. Just me and you."_ I did a little happy dance beside my car.

"You just tell me when and where and I'll be there, Cody."

_"Then it's a date?"_

"It's a date."

* * *

I was on cloud nine for my drive over and through most of our dinner. I was finally going to see Cody. The first thing I was going to do was touch his arm. For one thing, the man's arms were just beautiful and for another, I just needed to make sure he was real. Damn, why did Wednesday have to be so far away?

"So guess who I ran into at the club on Sunday?" My mother asked me, breaking me out of my daydream.

"I don't know. Who was it?"

"Marcus Wellington."

"Oh, okay." I had no clue who that was.

"You know Marcus, dear. He's one of the administrators at St. Joseph's Hospital."

"That's nice." I said, taking a small bite of my mango and raspberry sorbet.

"You'll never guess who he had with him." I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Here we go again. My mother was forever trying to set me up with someone.

"You're probably right." I sighed.

"He had his son Douglas with him. He just got his internship at St. Joseph's. And you know, he's just about your age." This time I did roll my eyes.

"Come on, momma. We talked about this. Please don't set me up with anyone."

"But he's a very sweet young man, dear. I showed him your picture and he really wants to meet you."

"Momma please."

"Douglas is going to be a cardiac surgeon, Georgia. I think you should at least give him a chance. He could be the one." My first thought when she said that was of Cody. Before I could say anything else, the doorbell rang. I close my eyes and shook my head.

"Please tell me you didn't."

"Mary, please tell them we will be in the living room." My mom said, standing up and gesturing for their maid to go answer the door.

"Momma?"

"Someone needs to help you find a boyfriend. I hate the fact that you don't have someone special. You shouldn't be alone." She said and walked out of the dining room.

"Daddy, you have to tell her to stop doing this." I begged as we followed her.

"I know how you feel, pumpkin but you also know how your mom is. When anyone tells her not to do something, it just makes her more determined to do it."

"I just wish she'd set her 'helpful' sights on someone or something else for a change." Dad wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"She reminds me a lot of someone else. Always determined to do things her own way." I smiled at him as we walked in behind my mom right as Mary showed in Mr. Wellington and Douglas. It turns out, I did remember Mr. Wellington. He often came to many of the parties my mom had over the years. His son Douglas, I disliked instantly. He walked in with a swagger that said he thought he shit didn't stink. He was used to being Big Man on campus. I'm sure he was used to having girls fan and fawn themselves around him because of his money and how attractive he was. Douglas was about 6 foot tall with perfectly highlighted golden blonde hair, accentuating his movie-star good looks that did nothing for me. He was wearing a tailor-made suit that probably cost more than the rent on my townhouse. That suit most likely hid a body that was in shape but not tight or ripped, like Cody's was and, from the way he carried himself, a penis the size of a tic-tac. I felt myself cringe as he openly stared at me.

"Stella," Mr. Wellington said, greeting my mom with a kiss on the cheek, "thank you so much for inviting Douglas and I over for drinks. Harrison." He reached out and shook dad's hand. "And the lovely Miss Georgia. Always a pleasure." He took my hand between both of his, gently squeezing it. He turned back to his son. "Harrison, Georgia, this is my son Douglas." The man of the second step forward.

"Mr. Cooper. It's an honor to meet you." He said shaking his hand. Then, much to my chagrin, he turned to me. "Ms. Georgia Cooper." He took my hand much like his father had. It was all I could do not to yank my hand away. His touch was literally making my skin crawl. "You are even more beautiful than your mother said you were." He ducked his head and pressed his thin dry lips to the back of my hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw mom's face covered in a smug grin. In her head, she knew she had done the right thing by inviting them over. Before he could kiss my hand again, I pulled it away.

"It's nice to meet you too." I told him as politely as I could muster.

"Everyone have a seat and Mary will bring us some drinks." Mom said, ever the perfect hostess. Of course, she somehow maneuvered it so that I ended up sitting in the loveseat with Douglas.

As drinks were passed out, talk turned to goings on at the hospital. While he thought our parents were distracted, Douglas, who no doubt thought he had a chance, tried to run his finger up and down the side of my thigh. I kept pushing his hand away but the idiot was persistent.

"You know Marcus, I have some of those ideas drawn up in my office. Would you like to take a look at them while you're here?" Mr. Wellington willingly agreed. No sooner had they cleared the door when mom's smug little smile returned. I just knew she was going to use this opportunity to leave me and Captain Douche alone.

"Douglas, we had the most wonderful sorbet after dinner tonight. Mango and raspberry. Would you like to try some?"

"I would love some, Mrs. Cooper." Mom stood up.

"I can get it." I said, hoping that she would take the hint. Not surprisingly, she shot me down.

"No, no Georgia. I'll get it. You stay here and keep Douglas company." She quickly turned on her heels and headed toward the kitchen.

"I never thought they would leave." He spoke up. I turned my head to look at him.

"What does that mean?" He turned in his seat to face me.

"Don't deny it, Georgia. You want me just as badly as I want to be inside that tight little body of yours." He laid his hand on my thigh just below the edge of my skirt and slipped his hand to the inside of my thigh and halfway up before I could stop him with my hand around his wrist.

"If you don't want to be the first doctor in Atlanta to perform surgery with one hand, I suggest you remove yours from my leg." I look down at his hand. He flexed his fingers, squeezing my thigh.

"Playing hard to get? I like that." He leaned into me, pressing me into the arm of the chair. "It turns me on, Georgia." He leaned in closer as if he was going to kiss me. I put my hand up in his face to stop his forward movement.

"I'm not playing hard to get, Douglas, I just don't want your slimy hands on me." I jerked his hand out from under my skirt and shoved it back in his lap. The dumb ass didn't take the hint. He just kept going.

"Don't fight this." He pressed me harder into the chair. "Let's sneak up to your room so you can show me how wet I make you. You can't deny that you want me." He reached for me again. I shoved him back and stood up.

"Look Dougie, you could make a cup of water wet. There is nothing about you that even remotely turns me on." I step back when he stood up. "I don't know what my mother told you, but you have no chance in hell with me. Besides the fact that you are slimier than a toad's ass, I'm actually dating someone. And I know for fact that he wouldn't appreciate you touching me either as much as I don't." Douglas lifted an eyebrow at me.

"Dating someone? Where is this mysterious boyfriend of yours tonight then, Georgia?" I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin in the air determined to stand my ground and show this jerk that he couldn't intimidate me.

"He's out of town on business if you must know." I step back again as he stepped towards me.

"Awe, isn't that cute." He leered at me. This time, I didn't conceal the cringe. "You're making up a boyfriend to make me jealous. Are you gonna call him and get him to come beat me up? I'd like to see him try." Before I could react, his hand shot out and wrapped around the back of my neck and hauled me against his chest and kissed me. It took a second for my brain to register what was happening. When I realized it was his tongue trying to force its way into my mouth, I shoved him away from me. As soon as there was enough room between us, I swung out and slapped him as hard as I could. I could tell from the sting in my palm that I had made good contact.

"If you EVER touch me again, you won't have to worry about my boyfriend. I'll kick your ass myself. I'm leaving. You can explain to everyone why you have that handprint on your face." I stormed from the room, calling out the goodbye to my mom and she was coming out of the kitchen. I didn't stop when she called out to me. I just grabbed my purse and keys, slamming the door behind me.

I pulled out my phone as I climbed in the car. I wanted to call Annie and tell her everything. I was just about to hit send when I remembered that she was on her date with that Randy guy. I didn't want to interrupt them. I ended that potential call and dialed the only other person I wanted to talk to.

_"Georgia?"_

"Hey."

_"Are you okay, sweetness? What's wrong?"_ I sighed. I instantly felt better the moment I heard Cody's voice.

"Nothing now. I feel better just talking to you."

_"What happened, sweetness?" _

"Just an unhappy ending to dinner."

_"Talk to me Georgia. You can talk to me about anything. Tell me what happened."_ Yeah, Dougie the Douche had nothing on Cody.

"Thank you Cody."

_"You're welcome but what are you thanking me for?"_

"Just for being you, Cody. Just for being you." He laughed softly.

_"Anything for you, sweetness."_

* * *

Annie leaned back in her seat, sipping her after dinner coffee as Randy carried the dishes back into the kitchen. They just had an amazing lasagna dinner with all the trimmings. After little prodding, Randy finally admitted that he had made any of the dinner. His mother had made everything and dropped it off moments before she had arrived.

Most people would've thought he took the easy way out but Annie thought it was sweet. Not many people would've thought to have someone make dinner and bring it to the house just to make sure she had a home-cooked meal. Plus, he confessed that if it wasn't scrambled eggs or sandwich, he couldn't make it. She set her cup down when he walked back in.

"Are you sure you don't want me to help?" She asked. He shook his head as he sat down across from her.

"Nope. I have everything in the sink soaking. I'll wash them tomorrow." Annie Look surprised. "What?" He asked smiling.

"You wash them yourself?" Randy nodded. "I thought someone like you would have someone to do that for you."

"Someone like me? What, someone with money?" He asked her.

"Nope." She leaned in towards him and smiled. "Just male." Randy laughed. He cupped his hands around his warm coffee mug so that he didn't reach across the table for her. He was pretty positive that touching her body would make his coffee seem frigid in comparison.

Annie laughed along with Randy. That was something she really liked about him, his sense of humor. He had such a laid-back, relaxed personality that for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what the other PT's had done to get themselves fired.

They sat at the table laughing and talking long after their coffee had gone cold. Annie finally ventured a glance at the clock she could see hanging in the living room.

"Oh wow. I didn't realize it was so late." Annie said standing up. Randy glanced at the clock. It was almost 2 AM. He hadn't an even notice the time.

Again, Randy found himself following Annie to the door. Only this time, he wasn't limping like he had been the first time he followed her. It only been a week and his recovery was already weeks ahead of schedule. He had Annie to thank for that. She turned around as they got to the door.

"I had a wonderful time tonight, Randy."

"Me too, Annie. I haven't had such a nice dinner in a long time."

"Good. I'm glad." She stood up on her toes. She leaned in, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek. Again, Annie had to force herself to pull away from him. He smelled so good. A faint hint of cologne and all male. "I'll see you on Monday." Randy shook his head as she turned. This time he wasn't letting her get away. This time, he was giving in to his desire.

Randy reached out and grabbed Annie gently around her upper arm, spinning her back to face him. She didn't even have a chance to react before he was pulling her against the chest, cupping her face and kissing her. It took her all of 2 seconds to realize what was happening. When she did, she threw her arms around him and deepened the kiss. Annie moaned Randy's name against his lips as he pressed her up against the door.

"Stay, my Annabelle. Please stay with me tonight. I don't think I can let you leave." He said to her, kissing the side of her neck.

"Yes, Randy." She moaned when he nipped her earlobe. She stroked her hands down his back, gripping the bottom of his T-shirt and started pulling it up. He let her go just long enough to yank the shirt up and over his head, throwing it to the floor before kissing Annie again. He worked at the buttons of her shirt. As soon as he cleared the last button, Annie herself shrugged out of it and tossed it to the floor near his.

Randy picked Annie up, making her wrap her legs around his waist and pressed her back against the front door. She pulled back just enough to speak.

"Your knee. What about your knee? I don't want you to re-injure it. Doesn't hurt?" Randy shook his head.

"No. Nothing hurts. I don't feel it. All I feel is you, Annie. Just you." He kissed her again, pushing away from the door and heading to the stairs that led to his bedroom. He took them two at a time. He stopped just outside the door. "Are you sure this is what you want?" Randy asked her, surprising himself. Normally, once a girl said yes, he was good to go but this time, he needed to be sure. She smiled up at him.

"I've never wanted anything more in my life." He smiled back at her.

"That's what I needed to hear." He kissed her deeply as he stepped into his room and kicked the door shut behind them.

* * *

"Oh my God, Annie! You slept with him?! On the first date?" Annie laughed at my question.

_"Yeah, I did."_

"That is so not like you. What does this man have over you? To be honest with you, I've never heard you this happy about a boyfriend before."

_"He's…he's perfect, Georgie. He's funny and sweet and thoughtful, he likes me for me and has his own money and doesn't want dad's. Plus,"_ she sighed dreamily,_ "he's so incredibly gorgeous. A mouthwatering body and he's got tattoos."_ Annie had a weakness for a guy with tattoos.

"So what did he think about yours?" As far as I knew, Annie had two tattoos. One was on the inside of her ankle and just said 'Show Me'. I had one in the same place of a cute little peach. We got them done together to show where we came from. They represented Missouri, the 'Show Me State', for Annie and mine was a Georgia peach. The other tattoo Annie had was one I had dared her to get. A few years ago, she came to stay with me for a couple of weeks. Every single day, at some point, she would have on this one T-shirt. She told me it was some wrestling related shirt. It was pretty simple, a rectangle with some initials inside of it. She said that it was her favorite. So I dared her to get the design tattooed on. I offered to pay for it thinking that she would say no but she took the dare and now had a rectangle with RKO inside on the back of her shoulder.

_"I told him the story. He said that he was flattered."_

"He's flattered? Because you're obsessed with a wrestling T-shirt?"

_"Oh…ah…I wasn't supposed to tell you that."_ She was quiet for a second._ "Can you keep a secret, Georgie?"_

"Is it something I'll have to hide from the cops?" I joked.

_"No. Nothing like that but you can't tell anyone."_

"Yes, I can keep your secret Annie. Now what's this flattery stuff about?"

_"Well, you know that wrestler that I like, that I talk about all the time?"_ I thought for a second.

"You mean the one that lives in the same city as you?"

_"Yeah. What else did I say about him?"_

"He's really tall and he has lots of tattoos. His name was…what was it…oh, it's Randy Morton, right?"

_"Well, it's Orton but yeah... it's Randy."_

"Okay. So what about him?"

_"It's Randy."_ I didn't say anything._ "It's MY Randy."_ Then it dawned on me.

"Holy crap! Are you telling me that you slept with that wrestler?"

_"Yeah, but it's more than that, Georgia. I'm dating him. Hold on. Let me call you right back. I'm going to send you something."_

"Okay." She hung up. A minute later, I was receiving an e-mail from her. There were two pictures. The first caption read 'Randy Orton, WWE Wrestler'. The picture was of this fairly good-looking guy in some colorful underwear. The picture was obviously done by professionals for the purpose of promotion. The second picture was one that Annie had taken with her phone. The caption read, 'Randy Orton, boyfriend'. He was sitting across the table from her and smiling softly. It was the same guy. A few seconds passed and she called back.

_"So...what did you think?"_

"Wow, Annie. He's hot. But are you sure that this wasn't just a one-time thing? I don't want to be a downer but you know how some guys are."

_"No, I know what you mean but this isn't that. I've been here at his house since Friday. After work, he gets us dinner and I stay over. And it's not constant sex either before you ask."_

"You've been at his house all weekend and you're just now telling me this? See if I tell you anything anymore." I huffed in fake anger. "Okay, so...how was it?" Annie didn't even ask what I meant. She just knew.

_"Amazing. I've never had it been like this with someone before. I could fall for him, Georgia."_

"I hope so, Annie. I hope this turns out to be everything you dreamed it would be."

_"Yeah, me too. Okay, okay, enough about me. Tell me more about this guy that's got you all happy. What's his name again, Cory?"_ I laughed.

"It's Cody, Annie." I had already told Annie everything that I knew about him. She knew exactly what his name was.

_"Yeah, Cody. So when and where is this big date of yours?"_

"Tomorrow night. I'm meeting him at The Oceanaire. You know, that really nice restaurant that Dad took us to? The one near the Margaret Mitchell House?"

_"Oh yeah. The one we went to when you were still in high school and going through that whole 'Gone With The Wind' phase. It was so funny that one time when you asked Stella to address you as Ms. O'Hara. I thought she was going to blow a fuse."_

"Oh my gosh. I totally forgot about that. The look on her face was priceless." I laughed along with her at that memory. "Maybe I'll see if Cody wants to go to the museum with me."

_"I'm sure he'll do anything you want to do. If he's even half the sweet guy you say he'll do anything to make you happy. He'll be good for you."_

"I hope you're right, Annie. I hope you're right."

* * *

I walked into The Oceanaire about 10 minutes before I was really supposed to be there. Cody said he had made reservations for us and I hoped our table was ready because I didn't think I could sit in my car and wait anymore. I made my way over to the Hostess station and asked for the reservation under Runnels.

Cody had confessed to me a week or so ago that Rubio wasn't his real last name. He didn't want everyone in his business so used his mother's maiden name. I couldn't blame him. At least Cooper was a common enough name that I didn't worry about being associated with my dad.

The Hostess led me back to a quiet, intimate table for two, right beside a beautifully enormous fish tank. I was the first one there. I glanced at my watch as I sat down. Cody would be here any moment now. I turned to watch the fish tank to take my mind off waiting. I hoped he liked the dress I wore. I picked it out because I knew we shared a love of the color blue. While watching the fish, the nerves started to set in. What if he didn't come?

When I glanced at my watch half an hour later, I was convinced that I had indeed been stood up. I bit my lip, fighting the tears that were trying to creep up on me. I flipped open the menu, determined to have a nice dinner, even if it was alone. The part that hurt the worst was that I thought Cody was different. I didn't think he would be like this. I thought he would have actually had the decency to at least text me if he was going to blow me off.

"I'm sorry I'm late." I jerked my head up. Cody was standing there beside me at the edge of the table. He looked even better in person. The pictures he had sent me didn't do him justice. I looked back down at the menu.

"I thought you weren't coming." I said. He took the seat in front of me.

"I'm an ass for letting you think that. But the thing is…" He sighed, "okay, I have to confess something to you." I nodded to him, still looking down. I knew what was coming. Either he was already in a relationship or he just wanted to be friends. Either way, I was leaving after he gave his little speech. At least I still have my pride.

"Okay." I said quietly.

"I've been here for the last half an hour, sitting at the bar." That made me look up at him.

"Are you kidding me? You sat over there, watching me agonize over the fact that I was positive you stood me up?" He shook his head.

"I think you misunderstand."

"Really? Well enlightened me then, Cody." When I was upset, my attitude came out. Defense mechanism I guess. He leaned in and lowered his voice a little.

"Yes, I was sitting over there at the bar watching but not to mess with you or hurt you. That was the furthest thing from my mind. I...I was building up my courage to come over here." I looked at him confused.

"Your courage?" He nodded and took a deep breath.

"Yeah." He took another deep breath. "Okay look, I don't want you to take this for a line or anything like that cause it couldn't be farther from that. Everything is the God's honest truth, okay?" He looked at me from across the table with the most incredible blue eyes. Even if what he said next was total crap, I'd probably fall for it. I'd let him get close even though it may hurt in the end, it would be well worth the ride.

"Okay." He let out a small breath he had been holding. He seemed slightly relieved that I would at least hear him out.

"Ever since the first time I talk to you, I felt this connection. I've never just talked to someone and have them consumed all my thoughts. Hell, I've never had ANYONE be on my mind as much as you are, Georgia." He reached across the table and took my hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb. "I already had incredibly strong feelings for you and I had never even met you in person. Then I walked in here… I saw you sitting here, looking so ridiculously beautiful and those feelings hit me hard. Then you smiled as you watched the fish and those feelings more than doubled. And, well, I lost my nerve. I kept thinking, what if I fuck this up? You are everything I could ever ask for and all I could think was how I wasn't sure I was good enough for you." I was everything he wanted? Yeah, he was forgiven.

"Cody." I started but he was on a roll and he kept stroking the back of my hand.

"So I headed over to the bar to take a shot of liquid courage. I sat there just watching you, gathering my nerve and before I knew it half an hour had passed. Then I saw that look on your face and I felt like the biggest asshole ever. Even though I may lose you before I even fully have you, I had to come over and tell you how sorry I was for bringing that look to your face."

"You are forgiven, Cody." He looked surprised.

"Really? Just like that?"

"Yeah." I smiled. "It took a lot of guts to tell me that. Most guys would have just played off that they were late. You didn't have two admit any of that to me. But I appreciate that you did. And…I feel the same way."

"You do?" I nodded.

"Do you know what really sealed it for me?" He shook his head. "After that dinner at mom and dad's house and I called you. You made me feel better just by being you." I squeezed his hand, thanking him.

"I wish I could've been there, sweetness. He never would have touched you if I was." He lifted my hand and softly kissed the back of it. I felt the heat from that touch warm my hand, shoot down my arm and fill my whole body with that same warmth. Nothing like when Douglas tried to touch me.

"I know. I wish you could've been there." He smiled softly and kissed my hand again.

"But I have to say, I'm so very proud of how my girl took care of herself." I smiled at him again.

"You still want to give us a try and let me be your girl?"

"This is all up to you, Georgia. Do you still want me? Even after what I just did?" I squeezed his hand and nodded.

"Yes, Cody. More than anything."

The two of us got over our initial speed bump and ended up having a wonderful dinner. We talked just like we always did on the phone. The only difference was now he was sitting right in front of me and I was holding his hand. When we were leaving the restaurant I did get to touch his arms like I wanted to. And let me tell you, they felt spectacular. They felt just as good as they looked.

During dinner, we both told stories from our childhood and I had told him about my 'Gone With The Wind' phase. He was the one that suggested we go to the museum. But sadly, by the time we were done with dinner and drove over to the museum, it was closed. We decided to head to the park that was nearby. Cody drove to the backside of the park where the small lake was. There was a tiny gravel parking lot maybe fifteen or twenty feet away from the water. We pulled in there and parked. Cody turned off the ignition and headlights, leaving just the radio on. He took my hand, intertwining our fingers. We talked, listen to the radio and watch the moon and city lights play across the surface of the dark quiet lake.

"Will you dance with me?" Cody asked out of nowhere.

"What? Here? You want to dance with me here?" He just smiled, turned up the radio and got the car. He walked around to my side, open the door and held his hand out to me. I took it and let him help me out.

"Yes, why not here?" He used the hand he was holding to spin me in a circle, making me laugh. He was smiling when he gently pulled me close. The two of us fit against each other perfectly. In that moment, pressed close together as we were, my world clicked into place. Swaying gently with the music floating out of the open windows, was exactly where I always wanted to be. Here with Cody.

Lady Antebellum's song, 'Just A Kiss' drifted out to us.

"I love this song." I said softly. Cody just kept smiling and pulled me a little closer. I had never felt the lyrics of a song so profoundly in my life.

'_Just a kiss on your lips in the moonlight_

_Just a touch of the fire burning so bright_

_No, I don't want to mess this thing up_

_I don't want to push too far.'_

'_Just a shot in the dark that you just might_

_Be the one I've been waiting for my whole life_

_So, baby I'm alright with just a kiss good night.'_

Cody slowly dipped his head and gently pressed his lips to mine. I sighed against them as my hand drifted up to the back of his neck, holding him close. My fingertips played along his hairline as the kiss deepened with no force on either of our parts.

As we pulled apart, Cody's hand cupped my face, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"You look so beautiful in the moonlight, I couldn't resist." I stood up on my toes and kissed him.

"Don't ever fight the urge to kiss me."

"Yes, ma'am." Cody laughed softly and kiss me again as the song was coming to an end. "I think this may just have to be our song, Georgie." He said as he laid his forehead against mine. I smiled and nodded in agreement.

"It's perfect, Cody. Everything's just perfect."

_**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**_


	4. Chapter 4

**SOOO sorry about this being later than normal for me posting a chapter. I'll try and do better next time. I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, GreenBlack1991, Me (yeah, not ME) and the mysterious Guest. You guys rock! \m/.\m/ Here is chapter 4. Enjoy!**

I hit Cody with a wicked smile as I pressed him back onto the sofa. I snuck my hands under his T-shirt so that I could trace them up to his chest as I dipped my head to kiss him. He drove his hand in my hair, keeping me close, while his other hand gripped at my hips that were rocking against his similarly jean clad ones. I moaned his name softly when he moved from my mouth to nip at my neck.

"I love that sound." Cody whispered against my skin.

"What sound?" He bit softly on the muscle between my neck and shoulder. I rewarded him by, again, moaning his name.

"That sound, sweetness." I pulled my hands from under his shirt only to bury them in his hair as he sat up, still kissing my neck. I let my head fall back he started to press those scalding kisses to the front of my throat.

"Tonight, Cody. Tonight's our night, baby." I moaned out softly as he wrapped an arm around my waist, tucking me close.

"Yes," kiss, "tonight." I reach between our bodies to grip his shirt and yank it up over his head. It landed somewhere on the floor near the TV. Cody started to pull my shirt off as well when phone rang in his pocket. "Damn it!" He dropped his head to my shoulder.

This was far from the first time this had happened. That something had interrupted us from going further than our hot and heavy make out session. The last three months, every time the two of us were together, either at his house or mine and tried to take our relationship to the next level, something would interrupt us. Whether it was my phone or his, or someone knocking on the door, it seemed that no one wanted us to have the sex we both desperately wanted and needed.

I softly stroked the back of Cody's neck while he dug his phone out of his pocket. He lifted his head to kiss me before glancing at the screen.

"It's my dad." He told me as he answered. "Hey dad." I smiled at him as I slid off his lap. The two of us had told each other nearly every single thing about the other when we spend our precious days together. Cody spent a lot of time away from home and I was extremely lucky if he stayed home three days in one week. Sometimes, he didn't get to come home at all. When he_ did_ come home, I tried not to monopolize all of his time because I knew he was very close with his family. I knew he'd want to spend time with them too. Yes, I probably could have spent time with them as well as him spending time with me and my parents, but I didn't want to subject Cody to the scrutiny of dinner with my parents yet. He agreed. He swore up and down that his parents would love me but he wanted me all to himself for a while before, in his words, his parents put me through the ringer.

"I'm at my... friend's house. Why?" He mouthed_ sorry_ to me. I smiled at him, letting him know it was okay. "Damn. That was tonight?" He stood up, looking for his shirt. "I'm in Stockbridge. I'll be there within the hour. Okay, bye." I stood up and found a shirt for him.

"Everything okay?" I asked as I handed it to him.

"Yeah." He slipped the shirt on. "I forgot I was supposed to be at some dinner with dad." He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me against him.

"Is it an important dinner?" I asked, snaking my arms around him.

"It is but I find you much more appealing than a dinner filled with talk about business." He kissed me softly. "I can't wait till next week when I see you again." I kissed him back.

"I know. Me either. Your house next time?" I asked with a smile.

"Yep. I'll make dinner this time."

"Deal." I kissed him and let him go. He smiled sadly as he turned and walked out the door. I sighed deeply. Man, I wish he could have stayed. I flopped back down on the couch and grab my phone. Before I could dial, a message popped up on the screen from Cody.

_'Miss you already.'_ I smiled and answered him back.

'Miss you too, baby.'

_'Call you later?'_

'You better.'

I dialed Annie's number. I hope that she wasn't_ busy_. I so didn't want to interrupt anything. She and Randy were still going strong. From the way Annie talked about him and from the few times I had talked to him, Randy seemed like a great guy. The best part about him was that he absolutely adored my sister. That gave him high marks in my book.

_"Hello?"_

"Hey, Annie. You're not busy are you?" She laughed.

_"Nope. Not this time anyway. I'm actually just making dinner."_

"Good. So I can whine and complain to you then, right?" She laughed again.

_"It happened again, didn't it?"_

"Yes." I whined.

_"His or yours?"_

"His phone. It was his dad. He was supposed to be at some dinner but he was here across town with me. It was going so perfect too. His shirt was gone, my hands were headed toward his belt, he was about to pull off my shirt...that damn phone."

_"Awe. Poor Georgie is sexually frustrated."_

"You better believe it. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I know it's irking him too."

_"Well, I say, just make it happen."_

"What do you mean, just make it happen?"

_"I have an idea. Do you still have that wrap dress that you bought a couple of years ago? The really pretty black one?"_

"Yeah. It's in my closet. Why are you worried about my dress?"

_"I'm gonna need you to dig it out of the closet. This idea is pretty much guaranteed to work."_

"You sure?"

_"Oh yeah. If this doesn't work and you don't get your man, I'll eat my own shoes."_ That made me laugh.

"Wow. You must be serious with this. Well then, do tell, sis."

_"You're going to his house this time, right?"_

"Yeah."

_"Great. This will work perfect then."_

* * *

Cody's POV:

I was counting down the hours until my flight home. I was dying to get there and see my Georgie. It was ridiculous that I missed her this much. I hadn't lied when I told her she consumed my thoughts. She was always there. Her and work were what was mostly on my mind. I knew I was falling for her and I was falling hard.

I smiled to myself as Georgia answered my text. She was sitting at home in her PJs, reading and talking to me. How bad did I have it for her if I could imagine her in her old T-shirt and shorts, curled up in her loveseat with the book in her lap and all I could think was how sexy she was. Yeah, I had it bad.

"What's got you smiling over there, Rhodes?" Ted DiBiase, one of my closest friends, asked me. Ted, his girlfriend, Ava Morris, better known to the wrestling community as the Diva, Angel, Dave Bautista and his girlfriend, Becky Flynn, known better as the Diva, Lilly were all sitting with me in our locker room backstage waiting for our other friend and coworker Randy Orton to show up. And at the moment, they were all staring at me expectantly, waiting for my answer.

"Just my girlfriend." I told them. Becky and Ava got excited.

"Is this the girl you've been telling us about?" Ava asked.

"Yeah, one in the same."

"The really pretty teacher?" Dave asked. Becky smacked at his arm.

"No, she's a librarian. Her name is Georgia, right?" She said. I nodded.

"Yeah, a librarian named Georgia." I couldn't help the smile that I felt takeover when I talked about her. Ava and Becky smiled with me.

"Okay, so spill it. How did you meet the librarian named Georgia?" Ava asked.

"Don't tell anyone, but I was talking to her sister on twitter…"

"You don't have a twitter." Ted said.

"Well…I do have one but I'm on there as a fan. Kind of an undercover thing. I can make friends with and interact with them without them even knowing who I really am."

"What happens when they find out?" Dave asked.

"I've been lucky, I guess. No one's figured me out yet."

"But I thought you were dating Georgia. She's seen you in person, right?" I smiled at Becky.

"Yeah, I am and yes she has. But here's the beauty of it, she's not a fan. She's just on twitter to talk to her sister really. Her sisters a fan, but Georgia's never even watched wrestling. She has no clue. That is what originally drew me to her. I can just be myself around her. I don't have to keep up a front. She's with me for me."

"Awe." Becky and Ava said at the same time. I just shook my head when Dave and Ted said the same thing, mocking me.

"Okay, okay." Ava held her hand out to me. "Let's see her. I know you've got pictures of her on that phone."

"There may be one or two on there." I scanned through my pictures and sound a group of her that she had sent me early on and a few of my own that I had taken. "Here you go. The third one is with her sister. The rest are just her." I said, handing Ava my phone. Becky leaned in and looked over her shoulder.

"Wow, Cody. She's really pretty." Becky said. I couldn't help but smile proudly.

"I know."

Ted decided that not only did he have to follow me on twitter, but he had to follow Georgia as well. While my phone got passed around, they each took turns following me and Georgia.

"She's pretty hot, Rhodes. You did good." Dave told me, handing me my phone as Randy walked in.

"Who's hot?" He asked, sitting down his bag.

"Cody's girlfriend." Ava told him. Randy raised an eyebrow.

"She is?" He held his hand out. "Let me see." I handed him my phone.

"The third one's with her sister and the rest are just her." Randy nodded and started flipping through. A strange look came over his face.

"Where did you get these pictures?" He asked. I was surprised by the slight anger that came from that question.

"She sent me a few and I took the last couple. Why?"

"Are you telling me that Georgia willingly sent you these?"

"Yeah, why are…wait, how did you know her name was Georgia?" He handed me my phone back and took out his own. He turned it to me.

"Look familiar?" It was the same picture of Georgia and her sister, Annie, that I had.

"How did you get this?" I asked.

"Her name is Georgia Cooper. She was born and raised in Georgia and works as a librarian in Stockbridge where she lives. She has a_ half_–sister, they share a dad, named Annabel or Annie Cooper, that lives in St. Louis where she was born and raised. Well, you might as well say she lives in St. Charles now." I knew my mouth had to be hanging open as he told me everything. Suddenly, the last thing he said kicked it all together for me.

"You're the Randy she talks about all the time. The one that's dating Annie." I said, finally connecting the dots.

"And you're the Cody that Georgia gushes about." Again, I smiled like an idiot.

"She gushes about me?"

"Yeah man. She's crazy about you." Randy handed me my phone back and I handed him his.

"You know she doesn't know who we are, right?" I told him.

"Oh, she knows who I am." Randy stated. "Annie told her by accident but it didn't matter because she told me that she wasn't a fan." Randy narrowed his eyes at me. "Are you telling me they never told Georgia what you do?"

"I…ah, told her I was in public relations." I admitted.

"Cody, man, you've gotta tell her."

"I know. I'll tell her eventually."

"You gotta tell her sooner than that. In the next couple of months we're going to Atlanta and guess who's flying in with her boyfriend to see her sister and meet her sister's new boyfriend? I won't be able to control Annie's reaction when she meets you."

"Damn it. I forgot all about that." I sighed. "I'll tell her tomorrow then." I just hope she took it well.

* * *

I pulled up in front of Cody's house at eight on the dot. I was nervous. Nervous but oh so ready for this. I knew we both were.

I was taking Annie's idea and running with it. I turned off my phone and shoved it down in my purse. I took a deep breath and climbed out of the car. I quickly made my way up the walk and knocked on his door.

Cody opened the door with a smile. That sexy little smile was enough to melt me into a puddle of goo at his feet. I was shocked that I was able to walk in the door when he stepped back letting me in. I went to walk past him but he shut the door and turned me around towards him. He pulled me close, kissing me soundly.

"I missed you, Georgie."

"I missed you too, baby." I said, kissing him again.

"You look amazing tonight." He said, stepping back, taking my outfit in. I grinned.

"Thanks. You look pretty yummy too." He looked down at his simple T-shirt and jeans. He didn't even have shoes on. "To me." I added. "You look yummy to me, Cody." He just smiled. I turned and headed into the den where I could hear the TV playing. I glanced around as Cody sat down on the couch. I picked up his phone off the table. I turned it off and set it back down, putting my plan into motion. With both of our phones turned off, no one would be able to bother/interrupt us.

Cody patted the couch beside him, asking me to come and sit down. I shook my head 'no'. I walked over and stood in front of the TV, blocking Cody's view. I played with the tie to my wrap dress where it lay on my hip. He looked confused for a moment.

"What's wrong, sweetness?"

"Nothing. Nothing will be wrong after tonight."

"Oh, okay." I started to pull at the bow on my hip. With a couple tugs, it came undone.

"I have something for you, Cody."

"Really?" I nodded. "What would that be, Georgia?" I grinned wickedly at him, pulling one side of my dress open and then the other, essentially flashing him before letting the dress slide down my arms and pool around my feet. I was left standing in front of him in nothing but my black lace bra and barely there panties.

"Me."

"Oh...man." Was all he could say.

"If you want it," I turned and headed down the hall towards his bedroom, "come get it." I could hear him walking behind me. I walked all the way into the room, stopping by the bed and turning to look at him. He was standing in the doorway, just watching me. I crooked a finger at him, telling him to come closer. Cody walked over, stopping in front of me. Before he could reach for me, I grabbed the bottom of this T-shirt and yanked it over his head, tossing it behind me. I laid both of my hands on his chest and gently shoved him back to sit on the edge of the bed. I'd never been this forward or aggressive with any guy before. I was pretty sure I could get used to this power I had over him. I reach out to him to softly stroked his cheek. He captured my hand and kissed my palm before I pulled away. I slowly started to undo the front hooks of my bra. Cody ran a hand across his mouth as he watched.

"Do you think we're ready for this?" I asked, holding the two now open sides together.

"Hell yes, sweetness. More than ready."

"Do you think that _you're_," I pulled the site apart and let the bra fall to the floor, "ready?"

Cody didn't even speak. He stood up and snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me against him. I could feel his need pressing heavy against my stomach. He kissed me. The touch of his skin and his lips teasing mine had me on fire.

"God yes I'm ready. So very ready." He whispered. I ran my hands down his chest and started to undo his jeans. The moment I got his zipper all the way down, Cody lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his hips as he turned us around and laid me back on the bed. Cody kissed down the side of my throat making me drive my hands into his hair and moan his name. He lifted his lower body away from mine, working off his jeans and boxers. I wiggled my hips a little, helping him as he stripped me of my panties. He stopped kissing me long enough to look down at me, taking in my naked, flushed an extremely aroused body. He stroked a hand down my stomach, causing goosebumps to break out all over my body.

"God, you are so beautiful, Georgia." He leaned back in and kissed me. "And mine." He kissed me again as he settled back against my hips. Somewhere between removing our clothes and him touching me, he had rolled on a condom. God yes. It was really going to happen this time. "All mine, sweetness."

"Yes, baby. All yours. Make me yours." I breathed against his mouth seconds before he pressed those lips against mine again. Cody let his hand slither in between our bodies moving down past my stomach, his fingers seeking my heat. I arched off the bed when he found it with his fingertips. I moaned out his name as he found a rhythm and dipped inside of me. Pleasure rolled through my body, pooling low in my belly. My hips were moving in time to his hand. I softly moaned against Cody's lips as my body fought for release. I started to whimper when he abruptly pulled his hand away.

"No. Don't stop, baby. Please." I begged. He kissed my chin, moving up to the corner of my mouth.

"I have something better, Georgie." He kissed the other corner. "Something that will feel so much better for both of us."

"Yes, Cody. Please." He kissed the side of my jaw back towards my ear. I bit my lip when I felt the head of his hard, hot, length slowly start to press inside of me. I moaned out his name as he slid in. Completely, deeply. I wrapped my legs around his hips, digging my heels into the back of his thighs, pulling him closer and just a bit deeper. He groaned.

"Fuck, Georgia. So good. You feel so fucking good." Cody said against my neck as he stared to move, rolling his hips, making me cry out with his hard, deep thrusts. The pleasure started to build rapidly. I was teetering on the edge.

"I'm...oh God...yes, right there..." I moaned as he moved slightly changing the direction of his thrusts, rubbing that perfect spot inside of me. Cody lifted his head to kiss me. I could feel my body tightening and if Cody's near frantic movements were any indication, he was close too.

Cody kissed my cheek just in front of my ear. His deep, heavy, rapid breaths brushing across my skin made goosebumps pop up all over my body again. Then Cody whispered against my ear.

"Let go, Georgie. Fly with me, sweetness. Fly." In that instant, I exploded. Pleasure slammed into me from all sides, making me scream out Cody's name as I plummeted over that edge into ecstasy, bringing Cody along with me.

We lay tangled in each other's arms for some time before either of us could even speak, let alone move.

"I don't think I have words to describe what just happened between us." I said, still stroking Cody's sweat dampened back. "It's never been like that before. I've never felt that with anyone else. Ever." He lifted his head so that he could smile down at me before kissing me softly.

"Me either, Georgie." He gently smoothed the hair away from my face. "I'd say it was just about perfect." He kissed me again. "I'm not sure it gets better than that." I smiled up at him, taking that as a challenge.

"You don't think so?" I pushed at his shoulder and shoved him to his back. I climbed over him, sitting astride his hips. I slowly stroked my hands up and down his chest. I smirked down at him. "I think I can do better." He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You think you can?" He_ was_ challenging me but I knew I already had. I could feel his need growing underneath me as his fingertips slowly kneaded the skin of my hips. I leaned in, kissing him deeply, running my fingers into his hair. I pulled back just enough to nip at his bottom lip. He groaned in response. He was mine.

"I know I can, baby."

* * *

Early the next morning, I found myself rummaging through Cody's refrigerator looking for something to make us breakfast. The choices were slim to none. But I understood. When you spent most of your time away from home, there was no reason to keep food on hand. Next time, we were staying at my house. At least he had stuff to make coffee. Maybe I'd make some, sneak out and try to find a grocery store nearby. I'd buy just enough to make us breakfast and wake him up with the smell of it cooking. I stood at the counter, looking out of the window over the sink into the backyard, sipping my coffee when I heard Cody walk into the kitchen.

I turned to lean back against the counter and watch him walk towards me. He was wearing just a pair of boxers hanging low on his hips. God, but he was beautiful. I was probably the luckiest girl in the world. I set down my coffee mug as he stepped up in front of me.

"What's that smile for, sweetness?" He cupped my hips and pulled me closer against his body. I laid my hand against his chest, stroking softly.

"Well, what's your little grin for?" I countered.

"I just walked into my kitchen to find my incredibly beautiful girlfriend, wearing my shirt, looking so fuckin' sexy after a night of the two of us making love. What's not to smile about?" He leaned in and kissed me when I wound my arms around his neck.

"I was thinking about how lucky I was." A kiss. "And how pretty you are." He laughed.

"Pretty?" I nodded. "No one has ever said I was pretty before." I played with hair at the back of his neck.

"No one, ever?" He shook his head. "Awe. My poor baby. Well, I think you're pretty no matter what anyone says." He laughed again.

"We both know I'm not the pretty one in this relationship so what if I take the real pretty one out to breakfast? Then we can come back here…" He dropped his head to nibble at the side of my neck, giving me a good idea as to what we'd be doing when we came back.

"You'll have to see me in the same dress I wore here yesterday."

"I'm okay with that. I didn't really get to see you wearing it all that long."

"That is very true."

An hour later, the two of us were sitting at a small table in the corner of a cozy little diner maybe a half a mile away from Cody's house. He was greeted by name when he came in the door. He told me that he had been coming here since he was a kid. I thought nothing more of it.

Breakfast was quite good. It was a nice quiet time with Cody holding my hand across the table and the two of us just talking. He was laughing quietly at something I said when two young boys, that couldn't have been more than thirteen walked up to our table. They both glanced at me but all their attention was focused on Cody.

"Mr. Rhodes, can you sign this for us?" I blinked in confusion. These boys had Cody confused with someone else. I looked over at him, waiting for him to turn the boys away. He was just looking at me. He wasn't turning them away.

"Cody?" I was extremely confused. I needed to know what was going on.

"I'm sorry, Georgia." He said softly. What did he mean that he was sorry?

"I have my book from the last time the WWE was in town. Will you sign it, Mr. Rhodes?" One of the boys asked. Cody took a deep breath, still looking at me before he pasted a smile on his face and turned towards them.

"Of course, guys. You can call me Cody." He held out his hand for the book the one boy had clutched to his chest. "What do you have for me?" The oversized poster–like book the boy had was one of those same books Annie had from one of the wrestling shows she went to. This was a program from the WWE. Cody laid the book flat on the table as he flipped through it. He passed a picture of Annie's Randy. I just watched him as he carried on a conversation with the boys, finally stopping on a picture.

I looked away from his face to the page he was holding open. The picture on the page was the studio picture of Cody posed in those colorful underwear that Randy wore in his picture. The name on the page said 'Cody Rhodes'.

Cody took the pen from one of the boys. He signed it to the boy whose name was Steven. He did the same for the boy whose name was Jack. He was handing the book back to Jack when a woman walked up behind the two of them.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Rhodes. These two are huge fans of yours. Sorry they took up so much of your time. Thank you again."

"Don't mention it. I don't mind at all." He said with a smile. The mother smiled back as she ushered the two boys away with them calling 'Thank you, Cody' behind them. He watched them walk away. He finally looked back at me. He went to reach for my hand again but I pulled it away.

"Georgia…" He started but I cut him off.

"What was that, Cody?"

"They were fans."

"Fans, huh? Who knew PR's had such a big fan base that they needed a big book of photos?" I shook my head. "I really thought you were different but you're just like all the others." I stood up and grabbed my purse. "I'm…I'm leaving." Cody stood at the same time, blocking my path.

"Georgia, please. Don't go. We'll talk…" I shook my head again. I was having trouble fighting the tears. No way. I would not cry in front of all these people.

"No. I don't want to talk. You lied to me. I don't want to hear what else you have to say." I pushed past him and walked out the front door. I would just have to walk to his house, get my car and drive home. As soon as I cleared the door, the tears started to fall. I was about a block away when the door of the diner flew open and I heard running footsteps behind me.

"Georgia! Wait!" Cody called out and caught up to me a second later. "Please, don't go like this. We'll talk, I'll tell you everything, I promise. Please." I turned to face him, not bothering to hide my tears and hurt.

"You lied to me, Cody. If there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's being lied to. I don't want to hear anymore. I thought you at least cared about me…"

"I do, Georgie. I do care." I shook my head.

"No, don't call me that." I wiped up the tears with the heel of my hand. "If you cared about me, you wouldn't have hidden something that big from me."

"I know, sweetness. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I was actually going to tell you over dinner last night."

"But you didn't! And how am I supposed to know that that's not a lie too? If those boys hadn't come over to the table, I still wouldn't know, would I?"

"I would have told you, Georgia."

"When? When I was finally meeting your friends or your parents?"

"No. I…" He sighed, "I didn't do this to mislead you intentionally." He talked over me as I started to argue that point. "How can I explain this…how about we try…why did you yourself to wait so long to tell me about_ your_ dad?"

"You know exactly why." A few weeks ago, I had broken down and told Cody who my dad was, what he did and about his money. Cody hadn't seemed to care. "I waited cause I wanted you to like me for who I was and not just for who my father was for the money I had…" It dawned on me as I realized what I was saying. I suddenly felt like a bit of an ass. "Oh." Cody had been doing the same thing. He was just protecting himself. "That doesn't change the fact that you lied about it." I said softly. He stepped closer to me, cupping my cheek. He stroked it with his thumb.

"I know, Georgie. I really am sorry I did it. It's just that I've been used so many times because of all of it, I just wanted to be myself and not have you have preconceived notions of who I really was. I wanted you to be with me because of me. Not because, like you, who my father is or I am or the money that we have. Just me. I loved the fact that you_ were not_ a fan. It let me have a relationship with a clean slate." He pressed his forehead to mine. "You and I, were perfect together." He kissed me softly. "Please forgive me for lying to you and holding something like that from you." Another kiss. "I love you too much to lose you because I was too stupid to tell you the truth. Please, sweetness. Please forgive me." I froze as he went to kiss me again. He pulled back as he noticed that I didn't kiss him back. "That's a 'no' I guess."

"You love me?" I whispered. He smiled. He knew it wasn't a 'no'.

"God yeah. More than anything, Georgie."

"Say it again, Cody."

"I love you, Georgia Cooper. I love you so…" I tugged him closer and kissed him. I deepened the kiss but pulled back before the kiss got too hot for the sidewalk, in the middle of town, in the middle of the morning.

"I love you too, Cody. So very much." He dropped his head and kiss me this time.

"So I guess you forgive me." I laughed.

"Yes, baby. Of course I do. But only if you forgive me for overreacting like a fool." He kissed the end of my nose.

"There's nothing to forgive you for. I understand."

"Okay, so right here, we make a promise. No more secrets. We tell each other everything. Promise?" He nodded, grinning at me.

"I promise, sweetness. No more secrets."

"Kiss on it?" I asked with a grin of my own.

"Always." He pulled me close, pressing his lips to mine. "Come on, sweetness." He took my hand, lacing our fingers and led me back to where we had parked. I decided now was the time to ask a few questions.

"So I guess you know Annie's Randy Orton then?" He nodded. "Are you the reason I got followed on twitter by some wrestlers and female wrestlers that I don't know?"

"Yeah, they demanded that I tell them about you. They followed me too."

"Oh. I thought it was just because Randy was following me."

"Not this time, sweetness. It was all me. But you'll like them. They are some of my best friends. I know they'll love you."

"I hope so." I was quiet as he started the ignition. "Do you get hurt a lot?" He took my hand again.

"I won't lie you, sometimes we do get hurt, but I'm always as careful as I can be, Georgia. I swear."

"I can't promise you that I won't freak out if you do get hurt." He laughed softly.

"That's okay. As long as you nurse me back to health." I smiled.

"You can just call me, Nurse Georgia." He smiled too, kissing the back of my hand. "You know I have to tell Annie, right?" He nodded.

"I don't care if you tell the whole world, sweetness. Whatever makes you happy." I leaned over and kissed his cheek as we parked in front of his house. "Why were asking each other questions, I want to ask you something."

"Okay. Ask away, baby."

"I hate being so far away from you all the time."

"That's the nature of your job, Cody. I don't think that can be helped." I said.

"I don't mean when I'm on the road. I mean, when I'm home. I hate that there's an entire city between us."

"What are you saying?" I asked, suddenly a little nervous.

"I don't want us to be so far apart anymore. Let's move in together." The nerves disappeared and were quickly replaced by excitement.

"Really? Just me and you?" He chuckled at my sudden excitement.

"Yes, Georgie. Just me and you. And I want you to pick it. Since you work in Stockbridge, it can be there or on your side of the city. I don't care. Just as long as I'm with you."

"Oh, Cody." I kissed him, leaning across the center console. "I'd love to."

"Good. That's great. I'll leave it up to you. You find us a nice little house and when I come home next week, we'll go look at whenever you find, together." I kissed him again.

"I love you, baby." I whispered to him.

"I love you too, Georgie."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. (And it will be true this time.) Thanks! =^.^=**


	5. Chapter 5

**I hope this is a little better than last time. I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, GreenBlack1991, Kinley Orton, Sultry Princess and the mysterious Guest. You guys rock! \m/.\m/ Here is chapter 5. Enjoy!**

"I could get used to this." Cody sighed. I smiled, running my fingers through his hair.

"Watching TV in bed?"

"Well, yeah but I meant coming home and having someone waiting for me. Someone to sleep with. Not just sex, actually sleep. Someone to cook for and with. Someone to spend my time with."

"You better get used to it. Hopefully, it will be a reality in a month or so." He softly stroked the side of my thigh.

"Whether or not we have a house yet, I still want to stay with you. We can stay at your place till then." I kept running my fingers through his hair.

"I'm okay with that. But I have to warn you, my bed is nowhere near as big as this one."

"Will we both fit in it?" He asked.

"Yeah, we just won't have as much room to move around in."

"That's okay. I like being really close to you anyway." I laughed softly as my phone started to ring. I grabbed it off the nightstand. It was Annie. She was calling to see how things went.

"Hey, sis." I answered. Cody rolled to his stomach so that he could turn his head where it was laying and look at me.

_"Hey, Georgie. Okay, I've been dying to know, did my idea work?"_

"Yes. It worked perfectly."

_"So…how was it?"_ I smiled at Cody.

"Amazing. Perfectly amazing."

_"He's that good, huh?"_

"I don't think there are words to even come close to describing how good." I looked down at Cody. 'Can I tell her?' I mouthed to him. He nodded and whispered, 'If you want to.' I told him thank you. "So, I decided I would start watching those wrestling shows you watch." Annie laughed.

_"One good tumble in the sheets with a wrestling fan and you want to become one too? That's cool though. At least when I talk about it, you'll know what I'm saying."_ I pressed the button on my phone to put it on speaker so that Cody could hear.

"That's true."

_"Well at least I already have someone you can be a fan of. If you want, I'll get Randy to send you a shirt so you can wear it proudly."_

"As much as I like Randy," I smiled at Cody, "I think there may be someone else that I'm a bigger fan of."

_"Really? Let me guess…John Cena, right?"_ Cody laugh softly. He knew I had no clue who that was.

"I don't know who that is, Annie. So, no. It's someone else."

_"Okay. Who is it then?"_

"Do you know the wrestler named Cody Rhodes?"

_ "Of course I know who he is. You like Cody?"_

"You could say that. Hold on. I'm gonna send you something." I ended the phone call and sent a couple of pictures that I had taken one night at dinner. I gave her second and called her right back. "So?"

_"That's a great picture of him."_ She must have just looked at the one of just Cody._ "Did someone post that on twitter the other night?"_

"Nope. But if you keep looking it will show you a reason why Cody would be my new favorite."

_"Is it because he shares a name with your boyfriend?"_ She asked.

"Partly." Cody smiled, loving the teasing I was doing. "Did you look at the second picture?"

_"Nope. Hold on."_ I waited while she pulled up picture._ "Oh my gosh."_ She had pulled up the picture of me and Cody. He had his arm around me but it look like every other fan/star picture I had ever seen._ "You got to meet him?"_

"Yeah. I met him there." I really had met him at the restaurant after work.

_"I'm not surprised by that. You guys do live pretty close to each other. I haven't had the chance to meet him yet."_

"I guess I beat you to it then, huh?"

_"Yeah, you did. So what does Cody the boyfriend think of you being a fan of this Cody?"_

"You'll see. There's one more picture, Annie."

_"Alright."_ She was quiet for a moment. While we waited, Cody climbed up in the bed to lay beside me. He wrapped an arm around me, tucking me close against his side._ "You kissed him?!"_ Annie said. Yeah, that was the last picture.

"I do it all the time. I'm pretty sure my Cody's okay with it." I said, not hiding my giggle.

_"What?"_ She asked, obviously confused.

"Have pity on her, Georgia." Cody whispered.

"Annie, Cody is my boyfriend. Yes, that Cody. The Cody you saw."

_"What?"_ She asked again.

"You remember the Cody you talk to on twitter, that I eventually ended up with?"

_"Yeah…"_

"That was actually Cody Rhodes undercover. It's been him the whole time."

_"You're telling me that I was sort of friends with Cody Rhodes before I even met Randy?"_

"It looks that way." I glanced at Cody and smiled. "Would you like to say 'hi'?"

_"Oh my God! Of course I would!"_ I held the phone closer to Cody so that she could hear him.

"Hi Annie. I've heard so much about you. I can't wait to finally meet you in a couple of months."

_"Hi Cody. I could say the same thing about you. She just left off that one major detail." _I poked Cody in the side.

"See? You should have told me earlier." I whispered to him. He mouthed 'Sorry' to me.

"Annie, you'll have to forgive Georgia for that. She herself didn't know that I was Cody Rhodes until this morning. You'll have to blame me for that."

_"You've been keeping secrets from her?"_ She accused.

"Just that." He said before I jumped in.

"You know how I keep info about dad quiet until I really trust someone? It was like that."

_ "Really, Georgie?"_ She asked. I could hear the skepticism still in her voice.

"I promise, sis."

_"Did you tell her everything, Cody? About what you do? About your family?"_ He grinned at me before kissing my temple and letting me snuggle into his side.

"Yes ma'am, I did. She knows everything."

_"Good. Now listen to me…" _Annie broke into the big sister protecting my little sister speech. She threatened him within an inch of his life if he ever did anything to hurt me._ "Does he make you happy, Georgia?"_ I didn't hesitate.

"He does, Annie. I've never been happier."

_"I'm glad, sis. You deserve to be happy. Do you hear me, Cody? She deserves to be happy."_

"I know, Annie. I'm doing my best. Do you think asking her to move with me in house I'm gonna buy for her help?" I was stunned for a moment.

"Oh, Cody. You don't have to do that. I'll help pay…"

"I_ want_ to do this for you, sweetness. You've given me so much in such a small amount of time. Like she said, you deserve this." I beamed at him as I pulled him in for a kiss.

"Thank you." Kiss. "I love you, baby."

"I love you too, Georgie."

_"Yeah, all that works for me."_ Annie said, laughing softly, knowing we both temporarily forgot she was on the phone._ "Have a good night you two."_

"Love you, fluffy." Annie laughed at the nickname from our childhood.

_"Love you too, peaches."_ Cody smirked at me as we hung up.

"Fluffy? Peaches?" I shrugged.

"They were nicknames we gave to each other as kids. She had what I thought was fluffy hair when we were younger and she said the shampoo my mom bought me meet my hair smell like peaches. You are the only other person that knows those nicknames." He laid hand on his chest over his heart.

"I feel honored."

"You should." I pulled him down to kiss me. "You know you don't have to buy the house for me, right? I can really help you pay for it." He kissed me back softly.

"I know, sweetness. But I want to. You're my future, Georgia. I feel the need to provide for you even though I know you can do it for yourself. This place is going to be where we start_ our_ future together." I stroked his cheek, smiling up at him.

"You certainly have a way with words, Mr. Runnels." I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him close. Our lips brushed as I spoke. "You know just what to say to make the girl feel special." He smiled before pressing his lips to mine.

"You are special, Georgia." He deepened the kiss, rolling me to my back, a hand buried in my hair. "Allow me to show you just how special I think you are."

* * *

The next morning, when I dropped Cody off at the airport with the promise I'd see him in a couple of days_ for_ a couple of days, I headed home to change and then headed to work. I use my free time searching the real estate websites, make a list of potential houses that would fit both of our wants in a home. Over the next two days of talking back and forth with Cody, we narrowed it down to four houses that we could both agree on. I found us a real estate agent and set up a time with her so that the three of us could go see the houses.

I liked all the houses, personally. The first two were nice brick homes in quiet neighborhoods and were priced right around what I research as to what a couple should spend for their first home. The next was just as nice but just a little bit above that price range. The fourth was the one Cody insisted on us going to look at. The house was huge and two times when I thought our budget should be.

Cody held my hand tightly as we walked behind the real estate agent, listening to her tell us all the wonderful and amenities the five-bedroom house had. Just as we were about to walk into the master suite, yeah, not a bedroom, a suite, Deborah, our agent, got a call and excused herself telling us to wander around and she'd come find us. Cody tugged on my hand, pulling me into the suite.

"Holy crap. Will you look at the size of this room?" He said, letting go of my hand to check out the vast walk-in closet. "There's enough room for me to store my retired gear in here if I want to and still have more than enough room for all of our clothes." I peeked in. He was right. There was way more than enough room. He walked out and across the room to a set of French doors and led out to a private balcony that overlooked the large yard and wooded area behind the house. "Come look at this view, sweetness." I walked out and stood beside him. I had to admit, the view was beautiful. Just through the woods, you could make out the edge of the small lake. It was nice and quiet. No sounds of traffic or hearing your neighbors through your walls. I actually couldn't even see the neighbors' houses. It was a spot at the end of a road in the back of the small gated community. Cody took my hand in his again.

"What do you think, Georgie?"

"It's nice but do you really think we need a house this big? What was wrong with the second house that we looked at?" He shrugged.

"That one was okay. But this one has more bedrooms. What if Annie he comes to visit you?" I laughed softly.

"There were three bedrooms in the other house. That's more than enough rooms." He pulled me against his chest.

"Did it have a study like the one downstairs? You can make that your own library, sweetness." He said, dropping his head to kiss and nuzzle my neck.

"It is pretty with all those built-in bookcases. And it does have a beautiful view of the woods…" I pulled back to look at him. "But we can make one of those bedrooms into…" He cut me off, kissing me.

"I have one more thing to show you before you make up your mind." He led me back across the room to the attached bathroom. Cody nudged me forward. "Go on, check it out." I sighed and walked in. I took a look around.

"Damn it." I said softly. I turned back to face him. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?" He just stood there smiling. He knew he had me. It was the tub. The enormous garden tub on the far side of the room under the softly frosted window.

"You said you wanted a big bathroom. Well_ this_ bathroom has that giant garden tub," he turned me to face it, "a stand alone shower," he turned me to the right, "and," he turned me to the left, "two sinks. One for you," he kissed the side of my neck, "and one for me." I sighed again, defeated. "You love this house don't you, sweetness?"

"Yeah, I do." He turned me back around to kiss me again.

"So you're gonna let me buy it for you?" I wrapped an arm around the back of his neck.

"But it's so much more money than what we planned on." I tried to argue.

"You let me worry about that. Just tell me, could you see yourself living here? Building a life here? A life with me?" I smiled and cupped his cheek.

"I'm not going to let you pay for everything you know that, right?" He nodded.

"I'll make you a deal. You let me pay for the house and you can pay for everything else. Deal?" I thought about it for a second and realized that could work for me.

"Okay, deal." He grinned at me before kissing me deeply.

"Okay, so what did you two love birds decide?" We turned to see Deborah standing in the bedroom.

"We want it. We want to put in an offer today if that's possible." Cody told her. She beamed brightly.

"I'll make the call right now." She hurried downstairs to start the process. The moment she left the room it hit me how real it was. I got excited all over again.

"Oh my God, Cody. We're buying a house. Our house."

"Yeah, we are." He kissed me softly. "Welcome home, Georgia."

* * *

Within a month, we were both packed up and moving in to our new home. Cody and I put off the one thing the dreaded until the last minute, telling her parents. My parents took it surprisingly well. But, that was probably because, like Cody and I agreed on, I told them I was moving in with a friend. Dad went into questioning mode. God bless but the man should have been a detective. I finally had to stop him and tell him he had nothing to worry about.

"I just don't want someone to take advantage of your kindness, pumpkin."

"They won't, Daddy. I won't let them."

"Just know that you always have a place to stay, here with us, if things don't work out." Mom said.

"Thanks Momma."

Cody and I did most of the moving by ourselves. Okay, we did hire some movers to actually move the majority of the items. Hey, they came with their own truck. But we didn't ask any of our friends or family to help. This was something we wanted to do on our own.

Cody left me in charge of the unpacking and putting away of our things. He told me I could organize/decorate anyway I wanted to. He trusted my judgment. I worked during the day and when I came home, I kept on working. I wanted things to look nice when Annie came to visit and brought Randy with her. I wanted Randy's first impression of me and Annie's first impression of Cody to be good ones.

Finally, everything came together like we wanted it to. We had our house pretty much the way we wanted it and were ready for first visitors. I had also started studying up so that it didn't look like a complete fool in front of Randy. I had started DVRing RAW and Smackdown and when Cody came home, typically on Wednesday, we would watch it together and he would explain things to me. Apparently, I was a quick study. He was proud that I was catching on so fast. I won't lie, it was hard to watch Cody's matches at first. Every hit or fall, I was pretty sure he was hurt and was just hiding it from me.

It never failed, after every match of his we watched, I instantly felt the need to take care of him. Normally, it involves a long hot shower while I made him dinner and brought it to him in bed. He may have pretended that it wasn't necessary but I know he loved every second of me taking care of him.

One night, after watching a particularly brutal match of his, I made him soak in the tub. He kept insisting it was fine but I wouldn't take no for an answer. We had already had dinner so I was going to wait until he was done and then we'd have something for dessert.

I was downstairs checking our fully stocked pantry for something for us to have when Cody yelled for me.

"Georgia!" The tone of his voice scared me enough that I dropped what I had in my hands and ran up the stairs to him. I was terrified that he had fallen was hurt in some way. I ran into our room and she called to me again.

"Cody?! What's…" I ran into the bathroom and skidded to a stop. Cody was laying back in the tub, just like he had been when I left him. "…wrong?" He grinned at me.

"Nothing's wrong." He pointed to the edge of his sink where a washcloth was laying. "Can you hand me that?" I put my hands on my hips, staring him down.

"Are you kidding me? You just yelled like you were hurt and all you wanted," I walked over and grabbed the washcloth stepped closer to the tub, "was this?" I dropped it down in the water on his chest. He reached out his hand which was laying on the side of the tub and ran his fingertip up and down the side of my bare knee.

"That's not what I really wanted." I cocked and eyebrow as I looked down at him.

"Oh really? What did you want then?" He sat up. I was momentarily distracted by the water running down his chest. He took advantage of that momentary loss of attention. Cody reached up and grabbed me around the hips and pulled me down into the tub with him. As soon as I hit the water, it went everywhere and I was instantly soaked. I wiped the water out of my eyes and looked up into Cody's laughing face. "Damn it, Cody!" I turned around in the tub to face him. "I'm drenched." He just kept laughing. I splashed him in the face. He wiped the water away and pulled me close. "This isn't funny, Code. Now, I have to change again, just so I can go to bed." He just kissed me.

"But sweetness, you look so sexy wet." He kissed my jaw.

"Whatever." I ran my fingers through his wet hair. I couldn't help but smile along with him. "Come on, baby. Let me get out so I can change." I kissed him softly. "Please?"

"Okay." With one last kiss, he reluctantly let me go. I scooted back and carefully stood up. Thank goodness I was just sits wearing a tank top and sleep shorts. I would have never been able to stand up if I had been wearing much more. As it was, my clothes were plastered to my body, the water streaming off the ends of the wet cloth and down my legs. There was no way I was getting out of the tub and dripping the wet clothes all the way across the room. I peeled my tank top off and wringing it out the best I could before doing the same to my shorts and panties.

I finally stepped out of the tub, naked and dropped the wet clothes into the hamper. I walked over to the cabinet by the sink and pulled out a fresh towel. I was drying off and tucking the towel around me when I heard Cody moving around in the water. I paid no attention as I started to comb the wet tangles out of my hair. Just over my head, I saw Cody stepped up behind me. He grinned a second before he pulled the comb out of my hand and spun me around, pressed me against the sink and kissed me. One small tug from his sneaky fingers in the towel fell to the floor around her feet.

"Did you think," he lifted me up to sit on the edge of the counter and leaned back in to kiss my neck, "that you could tease me like that and I'd just let you get away with it?" My hands stroked up and down the damp skin of his back, drawing him closer as I wrapped my legs around his hips.

"I don't remember jumping in the tub. I do believe someone pulled me in there." I let my head fall back as he kissed at the base of my throat.

"Maybe someone had the intention of getting you naked the entire time." I drove my fingers into his hair as his lips traveled down my chest to tease my breasts causing me to moan his name.

"Now that you have me naked, what you plan on doing with me?" He pulled back smirked at me. God, how I loved that sexy smirk. He rummaged through the drawer next to the sink and came out a familiar foil square. I took it away from him. "Allow me." I pulled him back so that I could kiss him and that opened the condom and took his length in my hand.

"Ah…shit...Georgia." He groaned, dropping his head to my shoulder, confirming to me how aroused he was. I slowly rolled the condom on, teasing him even more. To get me back, he slipped his hand in between us, touching me seconds before he drove two fingers inside of me, making me cry out. He nipped the side as of my neck. "Fair play, sweetness." He lifted his head so that he could kiss me again. "You ready for me?" I moaned his name as he moved his fingers inside of me. "God yes, you're so ready." He kissed me deeply, removing his fingers and replacing it with his own hot, straining flesh. "I love you, Georgie." Cody whispered moments before, with one thrust, he filled me completely. I cried out again. This time it sounded somewhat like his name.

"Yes, Cody, yes." I moaned as he laid his hand on the marble counter right behind my hips and started to move. I wrap my arms around his back, digging my fingers into his skin, encouraging his movements. "I love you too, baby. I love you too." Within moments, the bathroom was filled with sounds of Cody's and my love making. At one point, Cody lifted my leg and tucked it under his arm. It gave him more leeway to go deeper and faster. That was what it took for my body started tightening up in anticipation for the explosion of a release I could feel building.

Out of nowhere, Cody pulled out and stepped back. Before I could catch enough breath to ask him what he was doing, he picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and carried me back into our bedroom. He flipped me off and back onto the bed. I just looked up at him standing beside the bed, still breathing heavily, his manhood distending out from just below his hips, still shiny from my body; he looked like a God. My own personal sex God.

"Roll over." Cody said, his voice deepened by his arousal. I didn't hesitate to comply and rolled to my belly. I felt the bed dip and shift as he knelt down behind me. I shivered as he pressed the scorching kiss to the base of my spine. He kissed his way up my back to kiss across the shoulder blades. He moved the hair away from the side of my neck and face so that he could kiss there too.

As he pressed his lips along my jaw, he lifted my hips up off the bed and slowly, God so torturously slowly filled me again. My heavy breathing became a nearly continuous moan of pleasure as he rocked his hips against me. "Fuck me but I love that sound." Cody whispered as he sat up, his hips still rolling against mine.

I made a small noise of surprise when he snaked his arm under my chest and lifted me off the bed. He pressed me against his own still damp chest. I lift my arms to reach behind me and bury my hands in Cody's hair as I started to rock my hips against his this time. Cody groaned, tightened his arm around my waist and help me move with him.

"That's right, sweetness. Fuck. Just like that." Cody growled in my ear. He nipped at the back of my shoulder, driving my pleasure higher. He started to thrust deeply in time to my movements. I was hovering just on the edge until he thrust hard one time and I careened over into pure ecstasy. My release brought on Cody's. I collapsed forward on to the bed, bringing him down with me. He rolled us to our sides. We lay together, trying to learn to breathe again. Eventually, I rolled over to face him. He brushed the wet hair out of my face smiling at me.

"You know," I leaned forward kissing him, "we should take baths together from now on, baby." He laughed and kissed me back.

"I completely agree." Another kiss. "New house rule."

* * *

Early Monday morning, I was working on my story times for the next month. I was sitting in the back office where I could see the front desk. If Rachel needed me I was just a few steps away.

Cody had flown out the previous Saturday morning and I didn't have it pick him up until Friday afternoon. That was when Annie I was flying in too. The coming Monday was when RAW was going to be in town and I was going to meet everyone. I couldn't be more excited. I looked up from my work to Rachel calling me to come to the desk.

"Did you need me?" I asked. She smiled at me and pointed. I turned to find a delivery man standing there. "Can I help you?" I asked politely.

"Are you Georgia Cooper?" I nodded.

"Yes, that's me." He leaned down and picked up the most beautiful dozen peach colored rosebuds and handed the vase to me.

"Then these are for you." He said with a smile and headed out the door. I smiled to myself, bringing them close to my face and taking a deep fragrant breath.

"So who were they from?" Rachel asked. "They're from your boyfriend aren't they?" I shrugged and pulled out a card.

_'I miss you, peaches. See you soon.'_

_ Love, Cody_

I nodded at her. "Yeah, they are."

For the next hour, Cody and I talked/texted back and forth with me thanking him for the flowers and us talking about how much we missed each other. His last text said, 'Love you, sweetness. See you soon.' I replied with an 'I love you too.' and headed off to a storytime. Gladys, the library manager, my boss, decided that she wanted to sit in on this one. That didn't bother me in the least. We were reading a story and then making a craft. Just a typical, average storytime.

I was halfway through the story when I noticed that half of my six-year-olds weren't listening. I glanced around and noticed that a few mothers that normally hung around you were talking behind their hands and smiling. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rachel come up to the room. Something she never did. Okay, this was weird. What was going on? I crooked my finger at one of the little girls sitting in the front row. "June, sweetheart, come here." I said softly. She stood up and walked over to me.

"Yes, Miss Georgia?"

"Why is everyone giggling and whispering?" June smiled timidly at me and glanced over my shoulder.

"Because he's here." She pointed just over my shoulder to the same spot she'd been looking at.

"Who's here?" I turned to look behind me. "Oh my God!" I dropped the book to the floor and stood up at the sight of Cody standing there. I was instantly caught up in his arms and he was kissing me.

"Hey, sweetness." He said softly. I pushed him back to moment I remembered it was Monday.

"Oh my God, Cody. What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Memphis for RAW." He smiled and kissed me again.

"I know. We better hurry. Our flight leaves soon." He took my hand and tried to pull me out the door. I hesitated and he stopped.

"We?" He nodded. "I can't go, Cody. I have to be here at work." He grinned at me.

"It's all taken care of, Georgie."

"But…"

"That's right, Georgia. You're on vacation." Gladys said from beside me.

"But, Ms. Gladys…" She shook her head and waved her hand at me.

"Take her away, dear." Before I could protest again, Cody swept me up in his arms and started to carry me out.

"What about my stuff?" I asked with my own smile. We were stopped by Rachel.

"I packed up your bag for you." She handed me the bag and one of the peach colored roses. "Have fun, Georgia." Cody carried me out to the car and finally put me down on my feet. He pressed me back against the side of his rented SUV.

"You surprised, sweetness?" He asked with a kiss.

"Completely." Kiss. "We'd better hurry if we're gonna go back to the house so I can pack quickly."

"It's done. I snuck back in the house after you went to work and packed for you. Your suitcase is already in the back with mine." I turned around and glanced in the window. My suitcase was sitting there right beside Cody's. He wrapped an arm around me as I turned back to face him.

"You've planned everything out haven't you?" I asked, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Yeah. I've been working on it for a couple weeks. You worked so hard on the house and still went to work every day, I just thought you deserved a little vacation. Some time on the road with me." I kissed him softly.

"I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time."

Three hours later, Cody and I had landed in Memphis and were putting our bags in the back of another rented car. Cody made sure that I was in and settled before he climbed in himself and started to drive us to the arena. My nerves were starting to catch up to me. All during the short flight, I have been worrying about what I was about to do.

"Cody?" He reached over and took my hand.

"Yes, Georgia?"

"What if your friends don't approve of me? What if they don't think I'm good enough for you?" He smiled at me quickly before looking back at the road.

"You know better than that, sweetness. Haven't you been talking to them for a couple months now?"

"Yes, but…"

"Have they given you any indication that they don't like you?"

"No, but…"

"Then why do you think they won't like you?" I shrugged.

"I don't know. I guess I'm just nervous about actually meeting them in person." Cody pulled us into the back lot of the arena.

"No need to be nervous, Georgia. I can pretty much promise that they will like you." We climbed out of the car, locking my bag inside and rolling his in behind us. He took my hand as he expertly navigated the maze of hallways underneath the busy arena.

I held my breath when he opened the door to the locker room. He squeezed my hand reassuringly as he led me inside. I instantly recognized the four people sitting around. Ted DiBiase was sitting beside the diva Angel, who Cody had told me he was dating and her real name was Ava. On the opposite side of the room, Bautista was sitting with the diva Lily, actually named Becky and also his girlfriend, sitting in his lap. As soon as I cleared the door they both rushed over to me.

"You must be Georgia." Ava said taking my hand. "I'm Ava Morris. People know me as…"

"The diva, Angel." I finished for her with a smile.

"Yeah, that's right." She smiled back.

"I've been studying up." I walked over to Ted. "You're Ted DiBiase." I shook his hand.

"Pleasure to finally meet you, Georgia."

"You too." I moved on. "You're the diva, Lily." I shook her hand.

"Just call me Becky." I nodded at her.

"And you're Dave Bautista." He grinned at me.

"That's right." He shook my hand. I step back to Cody's side. He wrapped his arm around my waist. "The pictures don't do her justice, man. So much hotter in person. The whole," Dave waved his hand at me.

"She's got a sexy librarian thing going on." Becky finished for him. "With her hair up in a ponytail and those modest but well fitting clothes. Super hot." I could feel the blush working on my neck and into my cheeks when Ted and Ava agreed.

"Well, I did get kidnapped right out of work so I didn't get a chance to change." I said shooting a playful side look at Cody. That's got an 'awe' from the girls who thought it was romantic. They pulled me to one side of the room so that I could tell them everything. Within the hour, I had made two new best friends. They were both so down to earth and sweet. It was hard not to like them.

Just about an hour before the show started, the door to the locker room opened and the infamous Randy Orton walked in. I stood up when I realized that he was pulling someone in behind him.

"Annie!" Her smile was huge she shoved her bag at Randy so that she could hug me.

"Oh my God, Georgia! I didn't know you were gonna be here."

"I know," I pulled back, "I didn't either. A few hours ago, I was still work." Annie loved that. I reached out for Cody's hand and pulled him close. "Annie Cooper, this is Cody Runnels, my boyfriend. Cody, this is my sister, Annie." Cody stuck his hand out.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person, Annie." Cody said with a smile. She didn't even bother with that. She instantly wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"You too, Cody." He just smiled and hugged her back. Randy walked over to me.

"Hey, I'm Randy Orton." I looked up at him.

"I figured as much. I guess you know I'm Georgia." He grinned.

"I figured as much." He leaned in the same time I did for the hug. I had to smile to myself. He smelled terrific just like Annie always bragged he did. I stepped away and back to Cody's side. He instantly took my hand, linking our fingers together. As hot and delicious as Randy, Ted and all the other guys I had met were, none were Cody. None of them gave me the warm and fuzzies like he did. No one made me feel like he did. Pressed here close to his side, holding his hand, was right where I was supposed to be.

After I had introduced Annie to my new friends, her and I made her way out to the arena to sit ringside with the rest of the fans for my first live event. I was surprised at how fun it was. That was until the match Cody was in. Cody, Randy and Ted were on one team against, if I remember their names correctly, John Cena, Triple H and Shawn Michaels. My poor baby was the one that got singled out and beaten up the most. I knew that Cody was trained to take these falls and not to get hurt but that didn't stop me from flinching every time he went down.

The worst part about it was that the_ fans_, if you can call them that, around us cheered every time Cody went down. I couldn't believe how heartless in their jeers they were. Numerous times, Annie had to take my hand and remind me that the three of them were the bad guys and the crowd was supposed to hate them.

Just before the match ended, I gave in and decided I couldn't watch anymore. I told Annie to stay and I made my way back to Cody's locker room. I pushed open the door to find Becky and Ava sitting there. They were no longer in their ring gear. They were in their street clothes waiting on everyone to be done with their night. Me and Cody, along with Annie and Randy were going out to a late dinner with my new friends.

"Hey Georgia." Ava said, looking down at her watch. "Is the match over already?" I shook my head.

"Not yet. I just didn't want to be out there anymore." Ava And Becky looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

"It was your first time watching with the crowd. We should have warned you." Becky said patting the seat beside her which I gladly took. "It was loud and you're completely convinced that he's really hurt and of course, the crowd hated him too. Right?"

"Yeah. All of that."

"Trust us when we tell you, Cody's perfectly fine. They alternate between weeks." Ava Said. "One week Cody's getting destroyed in the ring and then next week, it's Teddy. But they're always okay."

"Plus, the more the crowd boos and hates them, the more our boss loves it." Becky added.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. That means they're doing their job to perfection. Vince loves that."

"Okay, now I feel like crap for not staying out there."

"Cody will understand, Georgia." She said as we heard three male voices at the door. It opened a second later as Ted, Randy and Cody filed in. I stood up and walked right up to Cody and wrap my arms around him, oblivious to the fact that he was dripping with sweat.

"What's wrong, Georgie? You okay?" He asked.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't stay out there. It was so hard to watch them hurt you." He push me back a little.

"I'm not hurt, sweetness. I'm fine. I promise." I leaned up on my toes and kissed him.

"I know that now. I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you." I pulled him down so that I could whisper in his ear. "When we get back to the hotel, I see a bath in your future." I pulled back and smiled and him. He couldn't help but grin back.

"It_ is_ a house rule." He kissed me again. "You don't have to go out there if you don't want to, sweetness."

"But I want to, baby. I want to be able to set out there, watch you work and support you. I just don't think I was ready yet." He tucked some hair behind my ear.

"Whenever you're ready to try again, I'll make sure you have really good seats."

"Deal." I kissed him softly. "I'll do better next time. I promise."

"I know you will, Georgie. I know you will."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	6. Chapter 6

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, GreenBlack1991, Kinley Orton and Sultry Princess. You guys rock! \m/.\m/ Here is chapter 6. Enjoy!**

"You look fine, baby. I promise." I swatted his hands away as he tugged at his collar. I unbuttoned the top button of his dark blue dress shirt so that he could breathe.

"I should have worn a tie." He mumbled, jamming his hands into the pockets of his black dress pants. It was a sure sign of nerves.

"No, you shouldn't have. You look fine." I pulled one of his hands out of his pocket and laced our fingers. "Why are you so nervous? You meet new people every day." I asked, squeezing his hand. He smiled.

"Yeah, but it's not every day I meet the love of my life's family." He dropped his head to kiss me. I giggled softly as his arms came around me, pulling me closer. We jumped and finally pulled apart when the door opened, revealing Mary standing on the other side.

"Ms. Georgia. It's so nice to see you." She said, smiling sweetly and both me and Cody.

"You too, Mary." We stepped inside behind her. She shut the door behind us and caught my eye. She tapped her lips with her finger and glance at Cody before rushing off to do more of my mother's bidding. I looked up at Cody and had to smother a laugh. His lips were nearly the same shade as mine. "Cody." He looked over at me. I used my thumb to wipe off his lips.

"What are you doing?"

"You're wearing more of my lip gloss than I am." I said. At that, he took over rubbing the pink gloss off his lips.

"Did I get it?"

"Yeah." I took his hand to guide him into the living room. "I can guarantee you, after my mom has said her hellos, her first comment is why am I not wearing anything on my lips. Just watch." We walked into the room to find my dad reading the paper and mom engrossed in her planner, making notes. They both looked up as we walked in.

"Oh, Georgia. You made it." Mom said as both her and dad stood up to greet us.

"Momma, Daddy, this is Cody Runnels. Cody, this is my mother, Stella Cooper and my father, Harrison Cooper." Cody shook both of their hands.

"Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, it's such a pleasure to meet you both. I've heard a lot of amazing things about you from Georgia. Did you get the flowers I sent?" He asked my mom. Cody had agonized over the flowers for four days before I just went online and ordered them for him. The card said something to the effect of 'Thank you in advance for what I'm sure will be a lovely evening.'

"Yes, I did. What a lovely gesture they were. They are going to be the centerpiece of our table for tonight." I noticed dad standing back with his hands in his pockets, mentally evaluating and inspecting Cody while he and my mom made polite small talk. Dad's eyes kept jumping from Cody's face to our joined hands on to my other hand resting on Cody's upper arm. I could tell from the look on his face that he knew there was an intimacy between us but he didn't know how far it had gone. He suspected that we had slept together but he could be sure about it. I could see the question stacking up on his face. Cody was in for an inquisition tonight. I hoped he was up for it.

Before dad could break in to his questioning, Mary called us for dinner. Thank goodness. I squeezed Cody's hand and led him into the dining room. Mom walked up beside me.

"Georgia, I thought you knew better. I can't believe you left the house without something on your lips." She shook her head. "Really, Georgia." She walked on ahead of us.

"Told you." I said to Cody. He just laughed softly.

Dinner started out perfect. We ate in a peaceful, let's talk about the weather and drive over moment until Mary brought out the main course. Then dad couldn't take it anymore.

"Did you grow up around here, Cody?" Let the Inquisition began.

"Yes, sir. I was born and mostly raised in Marietta."

"Mostly raised?" My mom asked.

"We lived in North Carolina for a while. I graduated high school here."

"Where did you could college, Cody?" I wasn't liking the way dad said his name. I snuck a hand under the table and squeezed Cody's knee in encouragement.

"I actually didn't go to college, sir. I moved to California to pursue acting. I went to an acting school for a while until I decided to come back home and work my way up to the career I have today."

"Where do you work now?" Dad asked.

"Cody works for the WWE, daddy." I said, trying to help. Cody smiled softly at me.

"The WWE? Isn't that the wrestling company you worked with a few years back, Harrison?" Mom asked.

"It is. What is it that you do in the WWE,_ Cody_?" He emphasized his name so that I knew he wasn't talking to me, and that I wasn't to answer any more. Cody must've understood. His hand found mine under the table, squeezing gently.

"I'm a wrestler, Mr. Cooper."

"A wrestler?" Mom said, surprised. "You beat people up for living?"

"Not really. They're more like…staged fights. We all have stories that we follow. Sort of like acting. Essentially, Mrs. Cooper, we're all very in shape actors who physically act out our parts as opposed to speaking them." I smiled proudly. He had made his point without insulting either of them.

"Do you get hurt often?" She asked.

"From time to time. It's never been anything really serious though. Bruises here and there. Stitches a time or two."

"What are your intentions towards my daughter, Cody?" Dad asked out of nowhere. I choked on the bite of potatoes I had taken. Cody patted me on the back gently. Before I could say anything, Cody answered.

"I love her, sir. And the way things are progressing and building between us, I can see us getting married." He rubbed my back softly.

"Love her, huh?" Dad laid down his utensils.

"Yes, Mr. Cooper. I do."

"How well do you think you'll be able to provide for her with this_ past time_ of yours?" Cody just let the 'past time' comment go.

"I make good money. I'll be able to give her a very comfortable life." Cody argued back, still without being as rude as dad was being.

"What if you get hurt? What then? What about when you can't do this," he waved his hand, looking for the right word, "this_ job_ of yours anymore? What will you do then?"

"I'll always have a connection to the business, so if something happens and I can't wrestle anymore or I retire, I will still have means of providing for Georgia." Dad was still staring Cody down. But to Cody's credit, he wasn't backing down either. Dad nodded. He pushed his plate back, placed his fingers together and laid his joined hands on the table in front of him. He narrowed his eyes.

"Cody, are you sleeping with my daughter?" Shocked was an understatement as to how blindsided I was by that question. I knew he was thinking about it but I never in a million years thought he would actually ask him.

"Daddy!" He waved me off and gave Cody a look that said, 'well, are you'? Cody took deep breath, trying not to get mad.

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't think that is an appropriate subject to discuss with you."

"Well, you're in my house, son. We'll discuss whatever the hell I want."

"Daddy, stop! That's enough!" I said. Cody squeezed my hand to tell me it was okay.

"Again, Mr. Cooper, with all due respect, Georgia's and my at-home, personal life is really none of your business."

"Excuse me?" Dad stood up. "That is_ my_ daughter. She was_ my_ daughter way before your pumped up ass ever showed up. Anything having to do with her is completely_ my_ business." I stood up too.

"Daddy, stop it!" He just looked at me. "Can I see you in your office, please?" I stepped away from the table.

"Georgia…"

"Office, now!" I yelled at him and walked away. As soon as he walked in behind me, I slammed the door shut. "What the hell was that, daddy?"

"Pumpkin…" I shook my head and cut him off.

"No, don't 'pumpkin' me. Don't placate me and act like it's all okay. I'm not ten anymore. Tell me why." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"I don't like him." I scoffed.

"You've known him all of an hour. You don't know him well enough to not like him."

"He touches you too much."

"Cody's my boyfriend! Did you expect him not to touch me at all?"

"He's not a good guy, Georgia. Guys like him never are. This won't turn out well for you."

"What does that mean?"

"I know guys like that, Georgia. He's only after one thing from you and once he gets tired of using you, he'll move on to the next pretty face that comes along."

"You think I'm just another pretty face to him?" He nodded. "You're wrong about him, daddy." I felt the tears building. "I've seen the women he works with. If he just wanted a pretty face, he could have any of those girls. He loves me."

"He loves the money he knows you have. The money he knows he can get his hands on if he hooks up with you." It was my turn to shake my head.

"It's always about money with you." I folded my arms over my chest, mimicking his stance. "Cody has plenty of money of his own. We never talk about money. He's the one paying for our house. He won't even let me make a payment." He dropped his arms.

"Your house? He's the one you live with?"

"Yes, daddy, he is."

"No. I won't have this. You're ending this tonight. You're packing your stuff and moving back here with me and your mother. I won't have it."

"You won't have it? You won't…I'm an adult. I can make my own decisions. I'm not a child anymore."

"You're my child!" I just shook my head.

"I love him, daddy."

"He's got you so brainwashed, Georgia. I refuse to let this happen."

"You can refuse all you want. I'm not leaving him. He's good to me." Dad lost his patience and went for the killing blow.

"He's good to you because you're fuckin him! What do you think is gonna happen when you want more? Do you think he's going to marry you? Guys like him don't marry their whores. And that's exactly what he thinks of you. You're just one in the line of many, Georgia." I didn't even bother to hide the tears. I trusted Cody and knew dad was wrong about him but that wasn't even what hurt the most. My dad thought I was a whore. He started to say something else but I turned on my heels and stormed out of his office and back into the dining room. Cody stood up from his seat when he noticed I was crying.

"Georgia? Sweetness, what's wrong? What did he say to you to make you cry?" I just shook my head and took his hand.

"We're leaving." I led him towards the front door.

"Georgia!" Mom called out behind us. "Georgia Leigh Cooper! You come back here this instant!" We didn't stop, just grabbed my purse and slammed the door behind us. Cody knew me well enough not to say anything. I stared out the window as we drove home. I kept replaying what dad said to me over and over in my head. The hurt the words inflicted brought on a fresh wave of tears. I turned my head to glance at Cody's profile as he drove. I needed to hear him say it.

"Am I your whore?" I asked quietly. Cody looked over at me, in shock at the words I just said.

"What?"

"Am I your whore?" Cody slowed down and pulled off onto the shoulder of the road.

"Is that what your father said to you?" He asked.

"Yes." I whispered. Cody's two-handed grip on the steering wheel got so tight that his knuckles turned white.

"Do you believe that, Georgia?" I didn't hesitate to shake my head 'no'.

"No. I think you're a better man than that. Even if that's what I was, I still don't think you would think that about me."

"Never. You mean more to me than anyone or anything ever has." He turned to face me and took my hand. "I love you so much, Georgia. Don't ever, EVER doubt my love for you."

"I don't. I didn't the whole time he was saying nasty things about you. I just needed to hear you tell me, to take away the hurt from the things he said." The tears started again. Cody unhooked my seatbelt and used the hand he was holding to pull me close. He just held me and let me cry until I asked him to take us home.

"You didn't eat much at dinner, sweetness. You want me to make you something?" Cody asked, shutting and locking the front door behind us. I shook my head.

"I'm not hungry." I said quietly. I put my purse down in its normal spot and walked upstairs to our bedroom. I didn't even bother to change. I just curled up on the bed. A few moments later, Cody came in, kicked off his shoes and walked over to the foot of the bed. He reached out and grabbed my ankle. He slipped off my shoe and tossed it over to where he had kicked his own off. He did the same thing with the other shoe. Cody didn't say anything as he got in to bed. He scooted over until he could wrap an arm around me. At the touch of his hand, I rolled over and buried myself against his chest, just needing him to hold me. His arms were around me an instant later. I pressed my cheek to his chest and listened to his heartbeat under my ear.

"I'll go if you want me to, Georgie. It'll break my heart to let you go but I don't want you to lose your family over me." I fisted my hands in his shirt and held him tighter against me, shaking my head.

"Please don't go. This is dad's fault, not mine, not yours. I won't let us suffer because he's an asshole." I lifted my head so I could look at him. "Please stay with me, baby." He gave me a soft smile, kissing my forehead.

"I'm not leaving till you kicked me out yourself, sweetness." He kissed my nose. "I promise, I'm not going anywhere."

Nearly two weeks later, Cody decided that we couldn't put it off anymore. Now, he and I were sitting at a dining room table, in Marietta, having dinner with Michelle and Dusty Runnels, Cody's mom and dad. From everything I had heard from Ava and Becky, Cody's parents were super sweet. And so far, things were going great. We made it all the way through dinner and were almost done with dessert. I could see a little doubt in Dusty's, he refused to let me call him Mr. Runnels, eyes when I told him I was a librarian. Cody's mom tried to turn that around when she found out that I did all of the children's activities at our branch.

Things were going great until talk turned to my family.

"What to do your parents do for a living, Georgia?" Michelle asked me.

"My mom, Stella, is a housewife and if the head of quite a few committees. My dad, Harrison, works for the PR firm Cooper, Steele and Gregory." As soon as I said that, Dusty snapped his fingers like something had just occurred to him.

"That's where I recognized her from." He said to no one in particular. Then he turned to me. "Your dad is Harrison Cooper, right?" Oh no. The tone in his voice said this was going nowhere good. I suddenly got afraid that this was about to turn into a repeat of dinner at my parents' house.

"Yes, sir." I nodded. He laughed quietly.

"I'm surprised that one of his kids even knows where the library is much less works there. Hell, I'm surprised she has a job at all." Dusty scoffed. "I should have known." He said shaking his head. I tensed up and looked down at my plate. Yep. This was taking an ugly turn.

"Dad, what…" Cody started but he was cut off.

"Code, you know what this," he waved his hand at me then Cody and back again, "is all about, don't you?" Before he could answer, Dusty continued. "Harrison Cooper is a money hungry, do anything to get what he wants, bastard." He glared at me. "And I'm pretty sure, because it never does, that apple don't fall too far from the tree."

"Dusty!" Michelle scolded. "What's gotten into you?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know that myself." Cody added, angry on my behalf.

"I just don't want to see him get screwed over like some of us did before." He turned back to Cody but I could feel Dusty's stare. I'm sure he took me not making eye contact as a sign he was right. "Look, Cody, the Coopers are all about the money. They'll do anything for it and I mean_ anything_. I bet you pay for that big ol' house y'all live in, don't you?"

Dusty went on for another minute or two about how horrible me and my family were, talking about me like I didn't exist, before Cody snapped and lost his temper.

"Shut up!" He yelled. I jumped. I have never heard Cody yell like that. I had never seen him this mad before. "Stop talking about her like she's not here."

"Why? She already knows how she is."

"Stop it." Cody warned. "Just because you had one bad experience with someone in her family doesn't mean Georgia's likes that." Dusty scoffed.

"We both know better than that."

"You're wrong about her, dad. You know you are." Dusty shook his head, laughing to himself.

"Damn son, you're so blinded by the piece of ass you're getting, you can't see her for how she really is."

"Dusty!" Michelle scolded again. Apparently, this wasn't normal behavior for him. And lucky me, I was on the receiving end of it.

Abruptly, Cody's chair scooted back and he was reaching for my hand. "Come on, Georgie. Let's go." I nodded and stood up with him.

"No, come on, honey. Wait…" His mom started. Cody pulled me close and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, mom. But I'm not staying here and letting him talk to Georgia like that. She's done nothing to deserve being treated that way."

"Son…" Dusty Started.

"No. No more." Cody stared his father down. "You're wrong about her. You damn well know you are." He one armed hug his mom, still holding my hand. "We have to go." He said softly to her. She nodded. Michelle mouthed 'I'm sorry' to me as we turned to leave. I gave her a half smile that followed Cody out the door.

The drive home was quiet, just like it had been last time but Cody was the first one to speak up.

"I'm sorry he said those things to you, sweetness. They aren't true. No one believes that. I know that's not you." He rambled on apologizing until I unbuckled my belt, waiting till we stopped at a stoplight, reached out and pulled Cody's face to mine. I kissed him, deepening it's the moment he responded. I smiled at him when we pulled apart.

"I know, baby. And I love you all the more for it." He smiled back.

"I love you too, Georgie."

The next afternoon, I unlocked the front door and let myself in. I snuck out of work a couple hours early because I knew that Cody was home alone for one of his few days off. I hung up my bag by the front door and called out for him.

"Cody?" I walked down the hall couple of steps. "Cody, baby, are you home?" I took another step and stopped when I heard a soft clicking coming from the end of the hall near our kitchen. I looked down to see a little bitty all black puppy trotting towards me. He was wearing a big blue bow that was almost bigger than him. I leaned down and scooped up the pug as he made it to my feet. "Hello there, darlin'. Where did you come from?" I cuddled him against my chest as he licked my chin. I smiled at Cody as he walked towards me, his hands tucked into his front jeans pockets.

"You like him, sweetness?"

"I do. He's adorable."

"I felt bad for the crap dad said to you last night so I thought I'd get you a little something to say I'm sorry. Plus, I'll have someone to hang out with when I'm off in you're at work." He grinned. I couldn't help but laugh softly at him.

"Does he have a name?" I asked. Cody shook his head.

"Not yet, Georgie. I thought I'd leave that to you." I lifted the puppy away from me to look at his adorable little mushed pug face. I made little kissing noises at him as I figured it out. Not only was he wearing that bright blue bow, but his eyes hadn't changed yet and were also bright blue. I pulled him close again and kissed his little nose.

"Blue." Cody smiled and nodded that he liked it. I kissed his nose again. "Welcome home, Blue."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	7. Chapter 7

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, GreenBlack1991, Kinley Orton, Livin on the EDGE and Sultry Princess. You guys rock! \m/.\m/ Here is chapter 7. Enjoy!**

"No, Mamma. No, I don't want to talk to him." I argued with her over the phone. It has been nearly six weeks since the debacle at our parents' houses. I still wasn't talking to my father and neither was Cody talking to his. I was barely talking to my mother. Unlike Cody's mom, who defended us, my mother just got mad at me for not listening to reason, a.k.a.: my father's point of view. Even knowing I was upset with her, and told her as much, she still insisted on calling me a couple times a week and_ talking_ to me.

Cody was propped up in bed beside me, where I had dropped when I had gotten home from work. He had Blue curled up beside him, napping, while he flipped through the channels on the TV. I sighed as mom started again.

_"Is that…_boy_ there with you right now?"_ I had to laugh at her. I nudge Cody said he would hear.

"That _boy_? You mean Cody, Mamma?" Cody chuckled and shook his head. He was 'that boy' with my parents and I was 'the gold digger' with his dad.

_"Yes. Is he?"_

"Of course he is. He lives here. Why wouldn't he be here? Do you want to talk to him?"

_"Oh, heavens no! Here..." _I heard the phone shuffle on the other end._ "Georgia."_ I rolled my eyes at the sound of my father's voice.

"Hi daddy." I said with no excitement at all. There were no pleasantries exchanged. He just started in on Cody. This time he started in on his family. I let him rant, nonstop without taking a breath for a couple of minutes before I stopped him.

"That's enough. I've had enough of your crap for tonight. I'm done. Bye, daddy." I hung up the phone and tossed it on the nightstand. I rolled to my side to face Cody, waking up Blue. He barked softly at me and nudged my hand so I would rub his head.

"What was it this time, sweetness?" Cody asked.

"He went into your family today. Apparently, he doesn't like your father as much and your father doesn't like him." I let out a frustrated sigh. "You know, just to spite them, we should run off and get married. Then they'll be each other's family. They'll have no choice but to get along if they want to see us either of us." I ranted under my breath to Blue who rolled to his back so I'd rub his belly. "They'd love that wouldn't they, Blue?" He just licked my hand every time it came near his face. I looked over at Cody as he clicked off the TV and set up.

"You still have tomorrow off, right?" He asked.

"Yeah. We were supposed to take Blue to the dog park but I think it's going to rain. Maybe we can go look for that bigger desk we want for the study. We can still take baby Blue with us." Cody smiled at me.

"I think I have a better idea." He leaned in and kissed me. "Give me a couple of minutes." He jumped out of the bed. I heard him go downstairs and shut the door to what sounded like the study. He was gone for about 20 minutes before he ran back upstairs. "Okay. It's all set. I'll put Blue in his room," the small room off from the kitchen where he stayed when we weren't at home because he wasn't perfectly house trained yet, "while you get your shoes on." He picked up Blue and headed out of the room. I scrambled out of the bed and slipped my flip-flops on going after him.

"Cody? Where are we going?" He set Blue down in his room and shut the door. He turned to me with a smile.

"We're heading to the mall." I followed him to the front door as he grabbed the keys to my car and handed me my purse.

"The mall? Why?" We walked out to the car.

"We need rings. Can't get married without rings can we?"

"Married? Cody…really?" I asked, surprised and excited at the same time.

"Yeah, really. Come on, Georgia. We both know we're heading that way anyway."

"I know that. But what about our families…"

"You said it earlier, sweetness. They'll be each other's family. They'll have to get along if they want to see us. But you know it's more than just that for us." He took my hand and laced her fingers. "I love you, Georgia."

"I love you too, Cody."

"Then let's do it. Let's get married. We'll show them that they don't always know what's best for us like they think they do. We know what we feel and what's right for us. What do you say, sweetness?" I wanted to. God, did I want to. But I had to know…

"You're sure you're not just doing this to get back at…" He cut me off by kissing me softly.

"You love me, right?" He asked. I stroked his cheek.

"You know I do, baby." He grinned.

"And I love you. So, what would be the next logical step for two people that are as in love as we are to take?" I smiled back at him.

"Getting married."

"So," he took both of my hands in his, "Georgia Leigh Cooper, will you marry me?" I nodded, smiling.

"Yes, Cody Garrett Runnels," I got a laugh from him for using his whole name, "I'll marry you."

We went to three jewelry stores before we found what we wanted. Well, what Cody wanted me to have. I would have been happy with just a plain wedding band but Cody insisted that I have an engagement ring. Even if I was only going to be engaged all of one day and not even a full one at that. So I tried to talk him into a simple small solitaire.

"Hell no, Georgia. And have your dad think that I can buy you something nicer. Plus, I want you to have something more beautiful than a boring solitaire." I ended up with a breathtakingly beautiful 2.5 carat Marquis cut diamond in what reminded me of an antique platinum setting with all the little delicate filigree. Cody had asked me what I thought of that one when it was still in the case. I told him it was beautiful and he told the sales girl helping us that we wanted to see it. She nodded and stepped away to get the key.

"Cody, that's so expensive. Why don't we go for one smaller?"

"I like this one, Georgie. It'll look amazing on your hand."

"The chances of it being my size are slim to none. What if it doesn't fit?"

"Then we get it sized and you'll wear your wedding band alone until it comes back." He said with a smile. Our wedding bands were simple platinum bands. His was a little thicker than mine but you could tell it was a set. We weren't getting them engraved so we could take him with us.

"Okay," the sales girl started as she opened the case and pulled out a ring, "this is the only one of this style of ring we have in stock. This is the last one we'll be getting. They are making that kind of design anymore." She went on to describe the grade, cut and carte of the diamond before she handed the small box to Cody. He took out the ring and took my left hand. I held my breath as he slipped the ring on.

It fit. Perfectly.

"Wow. That never happens." The salesgirl said. Cody held my hand out a way from us to see how the ring looked. He smiled, linking her fingers and bringing my hand to his lips so he could kiss it. He smiled at the salesgirl.

"We'll take it. And don't bother with a bag. She's gonna wear it out of the store."

* * *

The next afternoon, I was waiting for Cody to join me in the truck. I smiled as I lifted my left hand and admired my now complete wedding set. Yeah, Cody and I had done it. Yesterday, one of his calls had been to set up an appointment with the Justice of the Peace. And now, I was officially Georgia Runnels. It was nothing fancy and it was just the two of us. I was wearing a little white sundress that I had hanging in the closet and Cody wore a white dress shirt and black dress pants. Again, nothing fancy.

I looked through the wet windshield as Cody came jogging to the truck in the rain that had started to fall. He hopped in the truck, shutting the door behind him. He turned and smiled at me. I wonder if he knew that all he had to do with hit me with that smile and I was a puddle at his feet. I leaned in and kissed him.

"You happy, Georgie?" He whispered. I nodded.

"How about you, baby?"

"I've never been happier."

Cody held my hand the entire drive home in the rain, had picked up from the soft drizzle to a good steady rain. We didn't need to talk. We just enjoyed our first moments together as husband and wife. In no time at all, we were pulling in to the driveway. Cody turned off the truck and kissed my fingers.

"I'm sorry it's raining on your wedding day, sweetness." I shook my head.

"I'm not. I love the rain." I pulled him close to kiss him. "Plus, it's good luck for it to rain on your wedding day." He kissed me back.

"We don't need luck, Georgia. We've got enough love to get us through anything." I ran my fingers into his hair, still kissing him.

"Yes we do, baby." The kiss deepened just a touch before I pulled back. "Will you dance with me?" I asked, my lips still brushing his. He pulled back farther with a soft laugh.

"You want to dance? Now?" I nodded.

"I've always wanted to dance in the rain." I looked up at him through my lashes. "Are you going to deny me our first dance as husband and wife?" He smiled with a soft chuckle. He climbed out of the truck, ran to the front door and unlocked it. He stepped inside and came back out a few seconds later, minus his shoes. This time he came to my side and opened the door. I kicked off my sandals as he held his hand out to me. He helped me out and shut the door. I smile to myself as I lifted my face to the pouring rain and spun in slow circles. Within about 30 seconds, I was drenched. I open my eyes to find Cody standing in front of me, soaked like I was, just watching me with a half-smile on his face.

"What?" I asked walking a few steps to him and taking his hands.

"It's just that I can't believe that your mine. That fate brought us together. And," his smirk turned wicked, "you are sexy as hell dancing in the rain." He spun me away and back towards his body quickly, making me laugh at the sudden movements. I was pressed against his equally wet chest and we were swaying gently to the music of the rain as I smiled up at him.

"I love you too, baby." Cody dropped his head and kissed me. As we kissed, I slipped my hands up his chest, around his neck and into his wet hair. Eventually our swaying stopped and we just stood there wrapped in each other, making out. It quickly turned from simply making out to so much more. Soon we were tearing up buttons and undoing zippers. I had Cody's shirt undone and shoved off his shoulders when he lifted me, letting me wrapped my legs around his waist. My head fell back on my shoulders as he kissed at the raindrops rolling down the skin of my neck. I moaned his name softly before my eyes opened and I realized we were still in our front yard.

"Cody, baby?"

"Christ, Georgie. I need you right now, sweetness." I could feel have very_ need_ pressing against me as we spoke.

"Yes, me too. But maybe," I cupped his face, "not in the front yard, baby." He looked at me for half a second before he finally realized where we were.

"Right." He smiled and kissed me again as he walked us into the house. He kicked the door shut and turned to press me against the wall behind it. He never once broke contact with my lips as he started to work the drenched material of my skirt up over my hips. It was clinging to my legs and giving him a difficult time. He growled in frustration, yanking the skirt hard, freeing everything below my waist to his touch. I moaned out his name when his hand dipped inside my panties.

"Cody...wait." He groaned when I nipped his earlobe.

"I don't know if I can wait anymore, Georgia." In his haste, he ripped the sides of my very thin lace panties and tossed them to the floor again, baring everything to him. I rocked my hips in tempo with his touches. I managed to squeak out the word 'wallet'. "My wallet?" He asked between kisses. "You want my wallet?"

"Yes, please...hurry." He fumbled in his back pocket, trying not to drop me while I worked my clinging dress up and over my head, dropping it to the floor in our growing pile. Cody handed me his wallet and shrugged out of his shirt. I rooted in his wallet till I found what I was looking for then I tossed it on a nearby table. I smiled at him, holding up the foil condom wrapper.

"Take off your pants, baby." He kissed me again as his pants and underwear dropped to the floor and he kicked them away. He took the now open condom out of my hand, slipping his hand in between our bodies, rolled it on and with one single thrust, filled me completely. I cried out his name at the glorious invasion. He didn't move anymore, just kissed the side of my neck. I moaned in frustration as I tried to move myself. "Please, Cody. Please." I begged. He pulled almost all the way out and thrust back in, once. I drove my fingers in his hair kissing him deeply. "Fuck, Cody. If you're not going to take care of me, sit down and let me do it myself."

"Is that what you want?" He asked with a smirk.

"Please, baby. I need you." I whispered against his mouth. He flicked his tongue along my bottom lip before nipping it. Kissing me deeply, he pushed away from the wall. Between the wall and the sofa, my bra disappeared. He set me down on my feet and sat back on the sofa, still smirking up at me.

"Come get what you want, sweetness." Cody reached out and gripped my hips as I sat down with my knees on either side of his thighs. I reached between my own legs, gripping him tightly, stroking him. His head fell back against the sofa. I kissed his chin and up the side of his jaw as I moved him to the right spot and slowly impaled myself on his searing, ridged length. We both moaned out our pleasure as our hips met over and over again. I threw my head back, enjoying the ride, wondering how long it would be before Cody lost his control and took it back.

Cody's strong hands stroked up and down my back as he sat up enough to press scalding kisses at the base of my throat and across my collarbone as I moved. His fingers dug into my skin, like my nails dug into his shoulders as my body started to tighten up in anticipation of the release I could feel building.

Suddenly, Cody's hands clasped tightly on my hips and I knew my time in control was over. He lifted me off his lap and tossed me on the sofa beside him. Within seconds, Cody had me flat on my back and was poised over me. I propped one ankle on the back of the sofa and wrapped the other around his hips, pulling him closer as he sank himself deep inside of me.

I moaned Cody's name over and over as he drove me higher and higher until, I exploded. I cried out Cody's name but he didn't stop. He kept thrusting fast and deep, drawing the pleasure out until I blew over the edge again, this time taking Cody with me.

He collapsed against me, his head dropping down to the spot where my neck and shoulder met. He pressed his forehead against my neck, catching his breath. After a few moments he realized that he might have been crushing me. So he tucked me against his chest and rolled to his side, capturing me between the back of the sofa and his body. I propped my thigh up over his hip so I could hold him as close as I could.

Cody was kissing down the side of my neck and working us both up to round two, when his phone rang. I sighed as I pulled my head back. But Cody didn't move. I drug my fingertips up and down his back.

"Do you need to get that, baby?" I asked, kissing his temple. He lifted his head to kiss me.

"Nope. I'm too busy making love to my wife to answer. They'll call back if it's important." I smiled.

"I like hearing you say that." I said, running my fingers through the fine hairs at the back of his neck.

"What, sweetness?"

"When you say 'my wife'." I kissed him. "Just like I can't wait to change my name at work and start saying, 'my husband'." He smiled back, kissing me softly.

"I can't wait to tell everyone myself. But there are a few people we should avoid telling for a little while." I nodded knowing exactly who he meant.

"Yeah, our parents need to stay out of this loop for a while. I don't want them to destroy our happiness, baby."

"Me either, Georgie. Me either."

* * *

Way too early the next morning, I was kissing Cody goodbye and sending him out the door to his waiting cab. I stood in the open front door in just the button down dress shirt of his I had claimed quite a few months ago, blew him a kiss as he climbed in the back seat and watched as the car disappeared around the curve. I hurried upstairs to shower and dress for work.

The entire drive in, at every stop sign and stop light, I smiled as I watched the sun glint off my ring. I was still all smiles as I let myself into the branch. Everyone, Ms. Gladys, Rachel, Andy and Carla, were standing around the front desk talking as the computers booted up for the day.

"Morning all." I said, WAY more chipper than I normally was in the morning. They waited until I had put my stuff down in the office to question me.

"What's got you so happy this morning?" Ms. Gladys asked.

"You know she spent the whole day with her _man_ yesterday." Carla said with a laugh. Gladys nodded remembering.

"We did spend it together but part of it was at the courthouse so I could change my name."

"You changed your name?" Andy asked. I nodded with a smile. "So, what do we call you now?" He questioned. I stuck my left hand out into the group of them, flashing my wedding set.

"Georgia Runnels." Rachel and Carla squealed with a noise that I never expected to hear out of a human's mouth. Everyone took turns admiring my ring and asking questions.

"Anyone want to take bets on how soon we'll be talking about Georgia being pregnant?" Rachel joked. I laughed.

"Save your money. That won't be for a LONG time."

* * *

Cody's POV

I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I walked in the back of the arena. I said 'Hello' to every single person I passed, something I normally didn't do. Not that I was ever rude to anyone but I wasn't really an overly in your face happy kind of person. But I couldn't seem to stop it from happening today.

I walked into the locker room to find the normal gang. Ted and Ava, Dave and Becky and surprisingly, Randy was already there. I said a very chipper 'Hello' to everyone before starting to unpack my stuff for the night.

"Someone's very peppy this afternoon." Ted said with a smile.

"Don't tease, Ted." Becky said. "He's just happy he got to spend the last two days in Georgia."

"Oh, I have no doubt he spent them _IN _Georgia." Dave said.

"Ha ha, Dave." I said, laying my left hand flat against my chest, "your wit astounds me."

"What the hell is that, Runnels?" Randy blurted out of nowhere.

"What's what?" I asked confused. I looked down at my clothes thinking there was something on them.

"This." Randy held up his left hand with his palm facing him. I held up my hand to mimic him and realized that he was talking about my wedding ring. I just grinned.

"Oh my God, Cody. Is that a wedding ring?" Ava asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. Georgia and I got married yesterday." Instantly, I was hit with the what, when and where. Mostly from Ava and Becky. I got the why from Dave, earning him an elbow in the side from Becky.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Randy asked. And I knew 'anyone' meant Annie.

"It was a spur of the moment thing. We didn't tell anyone at all. Our parents don't even know yet and we'd like to keep it that way for a while. Besides, I'm sure Georgia's told Annie by now." Not five minutes later, like Georgie and I had planned it, Randy's phone rang. Annie wanted to know if I had told him about us.

"Yeah, babe. I just found out myself." Pause. "I don't know why she didn't tell you first." Randy shot me a look. I just shrugged with a smile.

Becky and Ava thought, since they didn't get to come to me and Georgia's wedding, that they would throw us a party. A small one. Just the two of them, Dave, Ted and of course Randy and Annie. I decided I'd invite my brother and my sisters as well. They all met Georgia at various times and really loved her. Yeah, no one in my family agreed with what my dad thought about her.

We decided that it would be over the weekend. No one had a show or appearance. We were going to make it a surprise. Georgia didn't think I was coming home until Wednesday. Ava and Becky assured me that they would take care of everything. I knew Georgia had to work from 9 to 12 so we'd have plenty of time to set everything up. I smiled at the two of them.

"She's going to love this."

* * *

I pulled into the driveway and parked beside Cody's truck. I gathered my things and headed into the house. At least today hadn't been too busy. All I could think about all day was getting home so I could cuddle with Blue and call Cody. The only good thing about working on Saturdays was that we could wear jeans. That meant I didn't have to change when I got home. I shut the door behind me and kicked off my shoes. I turned when I heard the soft bark and clicking on the wood floor as Blue came running towards me. I scooped him up and got covered in his welcome home kisses.

"Hi Blue." I said sweetly, rubbing his ears. "How did you get out?" I kissed the top of his head. "I'm pretty sure I shut your door behind me." I carried him down the hall towards the den.

"I let him out." I stopped in my tracks to find Cody standing there. I set Blue down on the floor and walked into Cody's arms, kissing him happily.

"I thought you weren't coming home till next week." I said, kissing him again.

"I wasn't going to but I missed my beautiful wife." That earned a smile from me and another kiss.

"Well, I'm glad you're here, baby. I missed my incredibly sexy husband." I ran my hand up and down his chest. I was going to get kissed again but we were distracted by Blue's soft barking and pawing at the back door. "What's wrong, sugar pie? Need to go out?" I looked back at Cody. "Did you not let him out when you got here?" I asked, walking over to the door.

"Yeah, I let him out earlier." Blue pawed at the door again then stood on his back feet and patted my leg like Cody had taught him to do when he wanted me to pick him up and carry him. I lifted him into my arms.

"How are you going to potty with me holding you, huh?" I said to Blue kissing the top of his head.

"Maybe he just wants to go outside with you." Cody said with a grin. Okay, something was up.

"What are you up to, baby?" I asked. He reached past me, turned the handle and pushed open the door.

"Why don't you check it out, sweetness?" He said kissing me and gently pushed me out the door. I nearly dropped Blue in my surprise at the group of people standing in our backyard that shouted 'Surprise!' as I walked out. I set Blue down to return the hugs from all of the new friends I had made through Cody, from his family that didn't hate me, including Dustin's, Cody's older brother, teenage daughter, Dakota, who adored her Uncle Cody and from the part of my family that didn't hate Cody, Annie and her mom, who I affectionately called my half-mom, Ellen.

"I wish you had told me." Annie said, holding my hand so that her and Ellen could look at my rings. "I would have been there with you."

"So would I have. Since your father is being an ass about this." Ellen added. I just nodded.

"I know you would have been." I looked at her. "You're not going to tell Dad are you?" She smiled at me and smoothed the hair away from the side of my face like she did all the time for Annie.

"Have I told Harrison any of the other stuff you and your sister have ever done?" I smiled and shook my head.

"No."

"I don't plan on starting now."

A few hours later, after we had eaten, opened gifts and the sun had started to set, Cody and I were sitting on the grass, leaned up against the side of the house, watching our friends and family cleaning up. They told us since they made the mess they would clean it up. I leaned into Cody's shoulder as I pet Blue who was sleeping away in my lap. I sighed happily.

"Thank you." I said softly.

"For what, sweetness?"

"For this day. I know you had a hand in it, baby." He laughed quietly.

"Surprisingly, I had nothing to do with this. I just gave them permission to have it here. Ava, Becky and Annie did all the planning and preparing." I turned slightly so I didn't disturb the sleeping Blue. I leaned in to kiss Cody.

"But without you, I never would have become friends with Becky and Ava." He kissed me back.

"Okay. That part may be true." I laughed at him. "But in reality, they're damn lucky to have a friend as amazing as you are, Georgie." I smiled at him.

"I'm lucky to have them. But..." I kissed him again, "I'm the most lucky to have you, baby." He cupped my cheek.

"I'm the real lucky one, sweetness." Another kiss.

"I just wish things weren't so stupid with our parents. I wish they would be happy for us." He tucked an arm around me, pulling me close.

"They'll come to their senses eventually, Georgia. Once they see that what we have is real and not just some attempt to piss them off, they'll come around."

"I hope you're right, Cody." He kissed my temple.

"They'll have to. Because I don't plan on going anywhere." I laughed softly.

"Me either, baby." I snuggled against him, smiling to myself. This was where I was supposed to be. Right here in own backyard, surrounded by most of the people I cared about and loved. Yeah, life didn't get much better.

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	8. Chapter 8

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, GreenBlack1991, Kinley Orton, Livin on the EDGE, Sultry Princess, foldintothenight and the ever mysterious Guest. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ Here is chapter 8. Enjoy!**

"Georgia?" I heard Cody's voice beside my ear, accompanied by his hand rubbing my shoulder. "Georgia?" He said again. This time I slowly opened my eye to see him kneeling in front of me where I had crashed on the sofa in the den. "Dinner's ready, sweetness. You want get up and have some?" I rubbed my face, trying to wake up some.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Nearly 8:30." Cody said, glancing at his watch. Wow, I had been asleep since I had gotten home around 4:30. Just about four hours and I felt like I had just laid down. Oddly, it had been like this for the last couple of weeks. I was so exhausted. By the time I got home every night, I was ready to drop. Today, I was lucky I didn't fall asleep at the wheel on the way home. "I'll bring you a plate if you want?" He said hopefully. He knew that here lately, the mere mention of food made me feel sick to my stomach. I took a deep breath and smelled some tomato-based pasta sauce that Cody had warmed up and was instantly nauseous. I swallowed convulsively for a couple of seconds to keep from throwing up. I shook my head as it subsided.

"No. Thank you though. I think I just want to go upstairs to bed, baby." He smiled softly and nodded. He stood up and stepped back as I slowly sat up, tossing off the amazingly soft throw that Gladys had bought for me and Cody for our wedding nearly 5 months ago. I loved it and we used it all the time. Cody offered me his hand to help me stand. I took it without hesitation and as soon as I was on my feet, a wave of dizziness hit me, making me sway and I was nauseous all over again.

"Whoa, Georgie." Cody said, wrapping an arm around my waist, letting me press my face to his chest until the dizziness passed, taking the nauseous feelings with. "You okay?" He asked when I finally lifted my head.

"I don't think so." I said quietly.

"Here then. Let me help you, sweetness." He slowly lifted me up to carry me with an arm under my knees and one behind my back. I laid against his chest, pressing my face against the warm skin of his throat and wrap my arms around his shoulders as he carried me up the stairs. I ran my fingers through the hair at the back of his head. I suddenly felt horribly guilty. Cody had the whole rest of the week off and now he had to take care of me.

"I'm sorry, Cody." I said softly.

"For what, Georgia?" He asked just as softly, walking slowly up the stairs, trying not to jostle me too much. I sniffled as I fought the sudden urge to cry.

"For getting sick on your time off. I didn't mean to." He sighed and walked us into our bedroom.

"You think I'm mad at you for being sick?" I nodded. "I would never be mad at you for something beyond your control, sweetness." He kissed my temple. "I'm just glad I'm here to take care of you. Here we go." Cody gently laid me down on my side of the bed. "You want me to bring you something to change into?" I looked at what I was wearing. A polo over a tank top and a nice pair of khaki. I shook my head and sat up slowly. I stripped off my polo and stood up, with Cody's help so I didn't fall if I got dizzy again, and stripped off my khakis as well.

"I'll just sleep in this." I told him.

"Okay, sweetness." I laid back down and covered up as Blue climbed his doggy steps we had for him at the foot of the bed and crawled up towards me. He stopped right by my hips so I could rub his head. I rolled to my side and Blue laid down and curled up right there in front of my stomach. Cody turned to quietly leave.

"Cody?" He turned back to look at me. "We you lay with us?" He smiled and walked back over to my side of the bed.

"Of course I will." He leaned down and kissed me. "I'll be right back, okay?" I nodded. I was asleep again before he cleared the door.

I woke up a few hours later, laying on my opposite side with Blue having moved with me and again asleep, curled up in front of my stomach. Cody was propped up against the headboard with his computer on his lap. He heard me moving around and looked over with a smile.

"Hey." He leaned in and kissed me softly.

"Hey back." I said, rubbing Blue's ear.

"How you feeling?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Okay I guess."

"While you were sleeping, I found this website where you can put in your symptoms and see what you might have. Want to try it?" I smiled up at him.

"You can if you want but I'm sure I'm just getting the flu. I'm going to call my doctor in the morning and see if she can give me something to knock it out before it gets too bad."

"Okay. But just for kicks, let's see what this says."

"Be my guest, baby." He started to type in my symptoms and ask questions about how often and how severe things were. While he finished up, I crawled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. I had to pee so badly. "Oh, that's another symptom, Code."

"What's that?" He asked.

"I have to pee all the time. Even when I don't drink a lot." He looked back down at the computer mumbling 'frequent urination' as I pushed the door closed. Within moments, Cody started laughing. "Okay," I called out, "what does it say?"

"Alright, so you could possibly have depression, mononucleosis," I laughed out loud at that one.

"Like we're fifteen?" He laughed too.

"Yeah, I guess. Let's see what else…emphysema, the mumps, influenza, like you thought, tuberculosis or you could be pregnant." He finished off, still laughing. But I stopped. The last one gave me pause. Pregnant? No. No way. Cody and I had been careful every single time. We always made sure he had sufficient 'coverage'. I opened the door and was washing my hands when I thought about something.

"What's today?" I asked, walking back into the bedroom.

"It's the 2oth. Why?" I sat down on the edge of his side of the bed. I can't believe I hadn't noticed. It was probably because I've been having the symptoms the whole two weeks. I turned and looked at Cody over my shoulder.

"I'm late." He looked at me confused. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand and then back at me.

"Late? Late for what? It's nearly midnight." I shook my head and turned slightly so that I could look at him.

"No, Cody. I'm _LATE_." I said again, emphasizing the word late.

"Oh." Suddenly, his eyes widened as it dawned on him what I was saying. "Oh!" I nodded. "Uh, how late?"

"About two and a half weeks. I'm never this late."

"So you think…" I nodded again.

"Yeah, I think… I might… maybe I'm pregnant."

"But we were always so careful. Always protected..." He started but stopped when he looked at my face. I must have looked hurt by that statement. "Not that I'm upset, sweetness. I'm just saying."

"I know. But I may still have the flu. Pull up that site again and see what it says pregnancy symptoms are."

"Okay. Let me see…" He started listing off symptoms and I had nearly every single one besides the spotting and cravings. "What do we do now?" He asked.

"I guess I could take one or two of those home pregnancy tests and see what they say." I suggested and stood up. "Why don't we go get a couple right now?" He set his computer to the side.

"You feeling up to that? I'll go get them if you want." He offered. I smiled and leaned in to kiss him.

"Yeah, I'm feeling okay for the moment. Why don't we go together?"

* * *

An hour later, we were both sitting on the foot of the bed holding positive tests in our hands. We were in shock. I took both the tests and set them in the bathroom.

"I'll call my OB/GYN tomorrow, first thing in the morning and get an appointment. Hopefully, she can fit me in this week."

"I want to go with you. I want to be there with you." I nodded. I stopped right in front of Cody. He reached up and stroked my hip. That small gesture set me off. I started to cry. Cody instantly stood up and wrapped me in his arms. "What's wrong, Georgia? What is it, sweetness?" He asked, rocking me softly. I couldn't help but cling to him as I cried. He asked again what was wrong.

"I'm scared, Cody. What do we know about being parents? I don't know if I can do this. I'm just scared." Cody kept rocking me.

"Me too, sweetness." He kissed my temple. "But we can do this." I shook my head no.

"What if we're not ready?" I asked.

"Do you love me, Georgie?" I nodded this time.

"You know I do."

"And I love you." He pushed me back a bit so that he could look at me. He smiled. "And what is the next logical step for a happy married couple, in love, to take?" It made me smile as I remembered the last time we had a conversation like this. I wiped the tears away. I stood up on my toes and kissed him.

"To have a baby and start a family." I said softly. He kissed me back.

"We can do this, Georgie. Me and you. I'm gonna be there with you every step of the way." I nodded again and hugged him tight.

* * *

Luckily, when I called the next morning, they had a cancellation and I could come in at noon for an appointment. I was a ball of nerves the entire drive to my doctor's office. Even Cody holding my hand the whole time didn't calm me down. It didn't help that when they called me back, I had to leave Cody in the waiting room.

The nurse showed me to my room so that I could change into a gown after we had made a pit stop for her to take some blood. I sat on the edge of the table swinging my feet and wringing my nervous hands until Dr. Palmer, who had been my doctor since I was fifteen walked in. She smiled sweetly at me.

"Georgia. What a pleasure to see you." She hugged me. She and my mother were friends outside of the hospital setting. This was going to be a bit tricky.

"It's good to see you too, Dr. Palmer." She patted my hand.

"One day I'm going to convince you to call me Lilly." She looked down at her chart. "Oh, I see there's a new last name here, Runnels. You got married?" I nodded. "How long? I bet your mom is over the moon."

"Me and Cody have been married about five months. But...uh...mom doesn't know and I kinda want to keep it that way." She smiled and nodded. Even though her and mom were friends, she knew how she could be.

"Lips are sealed. So, I know that this is early for your yearly..." She left it hanging so I had to say it out loud.

"I think I might be pregnant." I blurted out. She just nodded.

"I figured as much. I can almost tell you with 100% certainty that you are without examining you."

"You can? How?" She patted my hand.

"Darlin', when you've done this as long as I have you can just tell. Plus, I know you. I can see the difference in you already." She stood up and set the chart to the side. "Let's do this exam real quick and then we'll gather the husband and talk in my office, okay?"

"Okay."

* * *

She was right about the exam being quick. In no time at all I was redressed and walking out of the room. Cody was sitting right there waiting for me.

"The nurse came and got me and told me to wait here for you. How did it go?" I shrugged as I took his hand and led him to Dr. Palmer's office.

"Just like every other visit." I pulled him to a stop right before her door. "Cody, I have to tell you...Dr. Palmer...she's friends with my mom."

"Oh." I could feel myself tearing up. I knew he was going to be mad that I came to her.

"I'm sorry, baby. It's just that she's been my doctor since I was younger and I..."

"Shh, sweetness. It's okay." He stroked my cheek. "Is she going to tell her?" I shook my head.

"No. And I trust her. She'll keep it quiet." He nodded.

"So there's nothing to worry about then, right?"

"You're not mad that I didn't tell you first?" He kissed my nose.

"No, Georgie, I'm not. Everything is fine." He kissed me softly. "Now, let's go see what your Dr. Palmer has to say." I smiled softly up at him. I took his hand again and led him to the door. I knocked on the open door softly. Dr. Palmer looked up from her desk.

"Ah, Georgia. Come on in. Shut the door so we can have some privacy." Cody led me into the room with a hand on the small of my back and shut the door behind us. He held my chair as I sat down and took the seat beside me. "So, this must be the husband." She said. I smiled at that.

"Dr. Pal...sorry," I stopped when she shot me a look, "Lilly, this is Cody Runnels," I smiled over at him, "my husband." Cody winked at me, knowing how much I liked introducing him like that. He stuck his hand out across the desk.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He sat back in his seat and took my hand, lacing our fingers. "So, what's the verdict Dr. Palmer?" Cody asked, not wanting to be in suspense anymore. She smiled.

"Congratulations. You two are going to have a baby."

"I knew it." Cody said softly, lifting my hand and kissing my fingers. Dr. Palmer started asking a few questions trying to determine my due date. She estimated I got pregnant around the last week or so of August and she projected my due date to be in May, around the 14th. Dr. Palmer dug up a very nice tote bag and filled it with everything she could find. All kinds of literature, a couple of books and a huge travel mug that I could drink my recommended daily water from. And with a prescription for some pre-natal vitamins, she let us go.

We stopped, filled my prescription, grabbed some take-out and headed back home. Cody thought he was being subtle about doing everything for me but of course I noticed. I didn't say anything. I couldn't help but think it was sweet. I wondered if he would be like that for my entire pregnancy.

Later that night, we hauled the bag upstairs to our room to go through the stuff Dr. Palmer gave us. Cody dumped the bag out between us. He smiled softly as he held up a little booklet about how my body was going to change during the pregnancy. He started to read and I headed to the bathroom. I pushed the door closed behind me. I was brushing my teeth and glanced in the mirror and saw over my shoulder the door to the small linen closet. I rinsed out my mouth, rinsed off my brush and turned off the water. I turned around and pulled open the door. On the backside was a full-length mirror. I looked at myself standing there in my tank-top and sleep shorts. I pulled up my top to look at my fairly flat stomach. I ran my hand across it. It felt exactly the same as it always did. I turned sideways to see if my profile would look different. Nope, it looked the same too. I reached into the closet and grabbed a towel. I balled it up and shoved it under my top. I turned sideways and did the profile thing again. I smiled softly at myself as I got a possible preview of what I may look like in a few short months. I gently rubbed the faux-belly.

"You're going to be beautiful the entire time." I spun around quickly, yanking the towel from under my top as I faced Cody, who was leaning against the door jam.

"Hey." I tossed the towel away. "How long have you been standing there?" He grinned as he walked towards me.

"Since you opened the closet door." He kissed me. "You feeling better now?" I knew he was talking about how I was feeling about being pregnant. I nodded.

"I'm actually starting to get really excited." I leaned in to lay my face against his shirtless chest, wrapping my arms around his waist. "But then I think about our parents." I looked up at him. "We're going to have to tell them sooner or later, baby."

"I know. But at least we can keep it, these first couple of months, completely to ourselves." We had agreed over dinner not to reveal our pregnancy until my second trimester. Telling no one, not our friends, not even Annie. "We'll talk about it then, okay? Don't worry about any of that. I want you to have as little stress as possible while," he laid his hand flat on my lower stomach, "our baby girl is in there." I laughed softly, laying my hand over his.

"Baby girl? What makes you think it's a girl? I would have thought you'd want a boy." He kissed me.

"I'll be happy either way, but why wouldn't I want us to have a little girl as beautiful as her mommy, that will have me wrapped around her finger the second she's born?" I just smiled up at him.

"I love you so much, Cody." He grinned back.

"I love you too, Georgia." I stood on my toes and kissed him. "Come on mommy. Let's get you back to bed. You and baby need your rest." I kissed him again.

"Okay, daddy."

I woke up the next morning with Cody curled protectively around me and his hand resting on my belly. I could totally get used to this.

* * *

Cody and I spent the rest of the week reading everything Dr. Palmer gave us and we both started on the books. We even ventured on to the internet and found a couple of websites we liked. I found one where I could put in my due date and it gave me a day to day calendar of what was going on with the baby. I printed it off and decided that was going to be something I sent to Cody. Every day he wasn't with me, I was going to text him how the baby was progressing. He was going to love it.

* * *

The two of us settled into a nice new routine with him being home a couple more days than normal. He had gone to his boss and only his boss and told them we were expecting. He and his boss had worked out a deal to work less house shows so he could be with me but that meant every once and a while, he'd have to fly off somewhere for a day or so to do extra promotional stuff for the company. We were okay with that. It was a small price to pay to have him home at least three to four days a week as opposed to one or two.

And just like Cody promised he was with me at every doctor's appointment I'd had so far. Dr. Palmer assured us that everything was progressing nicely.

Cody and I had talked about telling our parents. Nothing we could think of sounded good. We knew we had to tell them about us being married as well. We thought maybe we'd do it in a public place where there couldn't be an argument because no one would want to make a scene. We also decided that since the end of my first trimester was right before Thanksgiving, we'd invite all of our family and friends to the announcement. I had rented out a dining room at one of the local restaurant that was close to our house the week before.

I personally called everyone, except Cody's parents, and invited them to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. My parents were iffy about it till I told them that a bunch of people would be there and not just me and Cody. Same thing with Cody's mom and dad. He was unwilling to come until he found out that all his children were going to be there. Dusty figured he could avoid me if other people were there. Thank God he didn't tell him that my parents were coming.

* * *

The afternoon of the 'party' was finally here after a couple of weeks of me fretting about it. I walked out of the bathroom in my towel, to grab my brush off the dresser. I walked past Cody, who was sitting on the edge of the bed putting on his shoes. He looked up at me and smiled. He waved me over.

"Come here. Let me see." I smiled back and walked to stand in front of him. He wanted to see my stomach. We had noticed earlier that I was starting to show just a little bit. It wasn't enough that anyone would really notice with the shirt I was going to wear but we would see it. I gathered my towel up to my mid-chest. Just above my underwear, the soft swell was beginning. Cody caressed his hands over it. "So amazing." He said in awe just like he had earlier.

"How do you think they're going to take it?" I asked. He stood up and let my towel fall back around my hips.

"They only have one way to take it, sweetness. Either they are happy for us and themselves or they're gonna miss out." He kissed me softly. "We'll be okay, Georgia. No matter what happens." I smiled up at him, letting him kiss me again.

"I know we will, baby."

A few hours later, Cody and I were sitting around a table with our friends, Becky and Dave, Ava and Ted, and with our families, Randy and Annie, Cody's brother and sisters and their significant others. We were just waiting for the parents to arrive.

Annie had ordered a couple bottles of wine that her and I both loved for the table to share. I tried to play off that I was too nervous to drink but she wouldn't buy it.

"You and I both know you're gonna need two or three glasses just to tell Stella and dad about you two." I just nodded and accepted the glass. I faked taking a sip every once and a while. When I didn't think anyone was looking, I tipped some into Cody's glass. No one seemed the wiser.

* * *

We were all laughing at a story that Ted was telling us when I looked up and notice my parents standing in the doorway to our private room. I squeezed Cody's hand under the table to get his attention. He rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand to let me know he had seen them too. I plastered on the best smile I could muster at the moment and waved them in.

"Everybody," I said loudly to get their attention, "this is Harrison and Stella Cooper. My parents." I could see dad shooting Cody a hell of a look before I started going around the table introducing everyone. To my surprise, they were very polite. Even dad was polite to Cody's siblings. I guess just to spite me, mom made a big production of hugging Annie and telling her how amazing she looked. Then she moved to me.

"Wow, Georgia. Feels like you've put on a few pounds. Does that '_boy_' make you eat junk?" Leave it to mom.

"No, momma. Just been eating well." I almost told her for two but I managed to hold back. At least later on she'd be eating her words. Before we could get settled down completely, Cody's mom and dad showed up. There was no need for introductions to everyone because they all already knew Dusty. Expect my mom and Annie. "Momma, Daddy these are Cody's parents Dusty and Michelle Runnels." I said and then Cody turned to his parents.

"And these are Georgia's parents, Harrison and Stella Cooper." Our father's shook our mother's hands and our mother's shook each other's but our father's just nodded at the other. Not friendly in the least. Hopefully, when they got news of the baby things would be a little better.

* * *

We started dinner and everything seemed okay. Talk started back up and everyone was enjoying the food. The conversation was steady but I could sense the tense undertones. It was just a matter of time before someone cracked. Sadly, I didn't have to wait too long for it either.

I was leaned into Cody's side stealing a carrot off his plate. He ducked his head so that when he spoke, his mouth was right near my ear and no one could overhear.

"The baby want's some carrots?" I grinned and nodded slightly. "Then eat them all, sweetness." He pressed his lips to my cheek before sitting back up straight. I noticed, when Cody sat back away from me that Dusty was staring at us. And by the expression on his face, he sure as hell did not like what he was seeing. I ducked my head to look back at my plate. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him take a few more bites of his food and a big drink of his water before he slammed the glass down. I jumped at the sound that got everyone's attention.

"Okay, Cody. Enough of this dog and pony show. What the hell did you bring us here for, son?" Dusty said. I looked up to see everyone looking back and forth between where Cody and I were sitting and where Dusty was waiting, not so patiently.

"I'd like to know that myself, Georgia. Why are we here?" My dad spoke up. Cody laid a hand on my knee under the table, squeezing softly.

"Well, Daddy it is Thanksgiving next week and Cody and I thought..." I was abruptly cut off by Dusty.

"Cut the bullshit, girlie. No one wants to hear it."

"Dad!" Cody wrapped an arm around me as I fought hard not to cry in front of everyone. Because of my hormones from being pregnant, I was overly sensitive. Every time someone yelled I tended to start crying. "Lay off." Cody warned him. Dusty narrowed his eyes.

"What did you do, son? Please tell me that you didn't..." He did get to finish. Cody lost his patience.

"Didn't what, dad? Fall in love with Georgia and move in together? We did. You already know that. Did you know that we got married? Yeah, we did that too. And before either of you," he looked at both his dad and mine, "get all high and mighty, it had nothing to do with you. We got married because we love each other. And we're happy. Nothing either of you do will change that." I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief but I knew we still had to tell them about the baby. The silence after Cody's statement lasted all of ten seconds before everything went to hell. Both of our fathers started yelling.

"Oh, hell no!" Dusty yelled.

"I won't allow this, Georgia!" Dad yelled at the same time.

"I just told you both, you have no say in this." Cody said to them. Dad stood up.

"You shut your mouth, boy. I will not stand by and let my daughter waste her life chained to the likes of you. She deserves better." That made Dusty stand up.

"How about you watch _YOUR _mouth, Cooper! She'd be lucky as hell to find someone like my son. We both know it's that money grubbing whore of a daughter that I need to get Cody away from." They went back and forth, trading insults on what they thought was our behalf for a few more minutes before I lost it too.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up, both of you!" I yelled. They both, as well as everyone else at the table turned to look at me. It didn't even faze me. I was so tired of this. It was ending now. "You don't know anything about Cody. Everything you say about him is so damn wrong." I told dad. I turned to Dusty. "And apparently, you don't know a damn thing about me either. If you had even bothered to ask, I fell in love with Cody before I knew what he did or before I even knew he had your precious money. It's not about that with us and it never has been." I pushed my chair back and stood up. "How would you feel if I told you that my trust kicked in this year and if I choose to go get it, I'll have way more money in my account than Cody will?" He just smirked, not believing me. I slammed both of my hands down flat on the table. "It's not about the fucking money! Why can't you get that? It's about love!" I stood up straight. "Something that apparently neither of you has for either of us." My eyes slid closed as I felt the tears roll down my cheeks. "You two need to get your heads out of your asses." I opened my eyes to look back at their faces. "And until you do, stay the hell away from us." Cody stood up and slipped his arm around my waist. "You better hurry too, cause if you don't you are going to miss it. You're going to miss it all. And we're not the only ones that are going to be hurt from this until you do." Cody handed me my purse and jacket. Neither of us said a word to anyone as we left.

"I messed things up, didn't I?" I asked as we climbed into the car. "I shouldn't have said any of that should I?" Cody took my hand in his, kissing it softly.

"Yes you should have, Georgia. They needed to hear it. They needed to know how damn dumb they're being."

"But in front of everybody?"

"Yeah. Maybe they needed to be embarrassed like that to see that we mean it." My head dropped back against the seat. I didn't even bother to wipe at the tears that were still falling.

"Why can't they just be happy for us? Why can't they be happy that we're happy?" I said softly. Cody shook his head.

"I don't know, Georgie." My hand drifted to my belly.

"I can't even imagine how bad it would have gone if we had gotten to tell them about the baby."

"Hey. What did I tell you before? No stress. Don't worry about them. If they don't come around, it's their loss, sweetness. We did everything we could to get them to see. The ball is in their court now. All we can do is wait and hope they come around.

* * *

A couple hours later, Cody and I were lounging in our own den. Cody had changed into a pair of longer nylon gym shorts and a muscle t-shirt and I had changed into an older pair of yoga pants and a tank top. The yoga pants had been perfect when I bought them but now they were getting snug. Cody loved the fact that they were one of the few pieces of clothing I had that you could actually tell I was pregnant when I wore it. I was propped up against the arm of the chair, with my legs in Cody's lap, reading one of the baby books that we had gotten while Cody browsed through the channels on the TV. Blue was sleeping on the other side of his lap. We were all startled by the knocking on the door.

"Who could that be?" I asked, marking my page and setting the book on the coffee table. Cody gently lifted my legs out of his lap.

"Let me go see." He stood up and headed out of the room towards the front door with me and Blue right behind him. He turned his head and grinned at us over his shoulder. "You could have stayed." I smiled back at him.

"I know." He just shook his head, still smiling as he unlocked the door. Cody opened the door to reveal everyone that we had been at dinner with minus our parents. With Annie, Becky, Ava and Cody's sisters and sister-in-law standing in the forefront. They were all staring at me.

"I don't know, Annie. She doesn't look it to me." Becky said.

"I'm telling you she is. I saw the wine trick she kept pulling at dinner when she thought no one was looking. She'd never pass up her favorite wine. Turn to the side, Georgie." Annie instructed.

"What? Why?" I asked, stooping over to pick up Blue. "Not that we're not happy you're here but...why _are_ you guys here?" Annie's smiled.

"See. I told you." The other girls smiled, admitting that she was right.

"Okay, what's going on?" Cody asked.

"You two can't hide that anymore." Ava said, pointing towards my stomach. I looked down while everyone piled into the house and it dawned on me. I _was_ wearing my yoga pants. They had figured it out. "That's why you brought all of us together tonight wasn't it?" I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, it was." I smiled at Cody who nodded, so ready to be able to tell someone and turned back to them. "We're gonna have a baby."

The two of us were instantly surrounded and hugs and congratulations were passed around. I was made to sit down and put my feet up while celebratory drinks were handed out.

"You know, if dad wasn't being such an ass, he'd be over the moon about the baby. I remember how happy he was when I told him about Dakota." Dustin said. Cody's sisters both agreed. "I don't know why he's being so stupid this time."

"Yeah, me either. But until he comes around, he's out of the loop. We don't need nor do I want that unnecessary stress around Georgia. We have enough to worry about on our own without worrying about them too.

* * *

A little later, after everyone had left, Cody and I were back in the spots were in before. Blue's head popped up when my phone beeped, telling me I had a message on twitter. Something I hadn't heard in a while.

_physioinstlmo: Sorry crossrhodes4me I can't hold it in any more._

I smiled. My twitter handle meant something completely now. I had even changed the spelling. Before I could answer her, she tweeted again.

_physioinstlmo: My baby sister crossrhodes4me is having a baby! Congrats crossrhodes4me & GALegacy! Heart you both!_

"Who sent you a message?" Cody asked.

"Annie." I said as his phone dinged, letting him know that he had a mention. "She told everyone about the baby." He checked his phone.

"So she did." That one message set off a fire storm of messages. Everyone from our group of friends to Cody's family. Then we started to get them from fans of the superstars that we knew. Then the questions started. 'Are you really friends with Randy Orton?, Do you personally know Lilly and Angel?, If you know Goldust, do you know Cody Rhodes too?' That one was my personal favorite because Cody got it too. Eventually, we couldn't fake our way through any more questions without giving away Cody's identity. We both just turned off our phones, praying that the fuss would die down by the morning and headed to bed.

Did it slow down by morning? Not in the slightest.

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	9. Chapter 9

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, Kinley Orton, Livin on the EDGE AND foldintothenight. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ Here is chapter 9. Enjoy!**

In what seemed like overnight, my belly really popped out and now there was no way I was hiding my pregnancy anymore. Not that I wanted to. I was halfway into my fifth month and I had a nicely rounded belly to prove it.

I had waited to schedule this ultrasound until Cody could be home for a few days. The two of us had talked a lot about this appointment. This was the one where, if we could get a clear view, we could tell if we were having a boy or girl. We had flipped back and forth a few times. At one point we thought we might want to know, then we were dead set against it and wanted to be surprised. Then we had looked at it logically. If we knew, we could start to decorate the nursery appropriately and I could go shopping with the girls when they came back in town in a couple of weeks. Plus, we could start to settle on a name.

I was humming along with the radio as he drove us to the doctor's office. I stopped humming suddenly and reached for Cody's hand.

"What? What's wrong?" He asked, instantly anxious.

"I feel it again." I told him and laid his hand flat on my belly right over the spot where I felt the fluttering sensation. It had started sometime a couple days before. We had stayed up half the night trying to get Cody to feel it. I had fallen asleep with him rubbing my belly. "Do you feel it?" I asked, moving his hand as the sensation moved. He shook his head, his face falling slightly.

"No, I can't feel it." I moved his hand for a few more minutes until I couldn't feel it anymore myself. "I didn't feel it at all." I lifted his hand and pressed my lips to his palm.

"I'm sorry, baby. We still have plenty of time. I think it's still early for movements." He cupped my cheek, stroking my skin with his thumb.

"I can't wait."

* * *

"You're positive you want to know, right?" Cody asked again for the millionth time. "It's all up to you, Georgia. I'll go along with whatever you want." He was sitting on the raise stool beside where I was leaning back on the angled bed waiting for Dr. Palmer to come in. He took my hand in both of his, stroking the back of it softly with his thumbs as I gave it one last thought. I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. I think we should find out. Then I can figure out if I'm talking you out of the name Peter Parker Runnels or Barbara Gordon Runnels." I teased. He laughed quietly.

"Fair enough. At least I wasn't the one to suggest Bruce Wayne Runnels." I laughed this time.

"True, but you know how I feel about Batman. You're lucky I didn't suggest Dick Grayson Runnels." We were both still laughing when Dr. Palmer knocked on the door and walked in.

"How are my favorite mommy and daddy doing today?" She asked with a smile.

"We're good." I rubbed my belly with my free hand. "All of us are. We are hoping someone wants to be photogenic today."

"I hope so too." She pulled the machine up beside the bed and input my information. "Do you guys have any questions for me? Pull up your shirt for me, Georgia." I pulled the bottom of my shirt up to the bottom of my bra, exposing my distended belly. She took the sheet and tucked it into the top of my pants and pulled them down just a touch.

"I have a question." Cody spoke up. Dr. Palmer squeezed some warmed gel on my belly and used the wand to spread it around a little.

"Okay?"

"Is it normal for Georgia to feel the baby moving but I can't feel anything even when she puts my hand right where it is?" He asked.

"It's totally normal. These movements right now are small compared to what's coming. Give it a few more weeks when the baby starts to really kick. There will be no mistaking that. You'll absolutely be able to feel those, Cody." She said with a smile and flipped the machine on. Both Cody and I smiled as our baby came into view. "We're looking good today. We're going to get you some great pictures." She proceeded to move the wand around checking what she needed to check, pausing every once and a while to explain what she was looking for and taking pictures for us. She got a shot of the baby's itty-bitty feet sticking up in the air. You could almost make out each little toe. "Did you two discuss whether or not you wanted to know the sex?" I squeezed Cody's hand.

"It's up to you, sweetness. I'll be happy either way. It's your decision." He kissed the hand he was holding. I nodded at her.

"We want to know." She smiled at us and moved the wand just a little. There was no mistaking what was on the screen. I felt the tears start to slide down my cheeks. Cody leaned in to look at the screen a little closer.

"Is that..." Dr. Palmer nodded, with a grin.

"Yes it is. It's a boy." Cody sat back, stunned into silence. Dr. Palmer checked a few more things before she removed the wand. "Did you guys want a copy of this?" I nodded. She typed something into the computer. She handed me a towel so that I could clean up. "When you're ready, come by my office and I'll print out the pictures and give you your DVD." She stood up. "Take your time." She closed the door behind herself. I quickly cleaned the sticky gel off the best I could.

"Eww. I can't wait to get home and wash this off." I untucked sheet and pulled down my shirt. Cody didn't say anything as he helped me sit up. I reach out to take his hand. "Are you okay, baby? I know you had your heart set on a girl but..." He cut me off by leaning in and kissing me. I ran my fingers through his hair. "Okay?" He smiled against my lips.

"More than okay." He kissed me again and rubbed my belly. "It's a boy, Georgie. We're going to have a little boy."

* * *

A couple of days later, I woke up to an empty bed. I called out to Cody thinking he was in the bathroom, but I got no answer. Before I could call out again, I heard stuff moving in the kitchen and Cody's voice as he talked to Blue.

I headed to the bathroom to potty and wash my face. I threw on the button down shirt of Cody's I had claimed as my own over my T-shirt and stretchy pants that I slept in and headed downstairs. I found Cody standing by the stove. I had to smile. He must have gotten up early, gone to the gym and was now making breakfast. He must have just gotten back because he was still wearing one of the muscle shirts he normally worked out in. I loved those shirts. They showed off his arms. God, did I love his arms.

I walked up behind him, pressing myself against his back as much as I could and wrapped my arms around him. He laid a hand over mine.

"Morning, sweetness." He turned around to kiss me.

"Morning, baby." I glanced at the stove around his shoulder. "What are you making?"

"I was going to make you some scrambled eggs." I grinned up at him.

"I knew there was a reason I loved you." I pulled him down for another kiss. "What are you going to put in them?"

"I was thinking just some cheese. Why?" He narrowed his eyes at me. "What were you thinking? Is it going to be gross?" I fake pouted.

"I don't think it's gross but you may not like it."

"That's probably true. The only one of your cravings I've liked so far was the potato chips and vanilla ice cream. That was surprisingly good." He tugged a little on my collar. "What do you want me to add for you, Georgie?" I walked over to the pantry and pulled out the plastic container I had put them in last time.

"Chocolate chips." He made a face. A 'eww that's disgusting' face. "I accidentally dropped some in my eggs a couple of weeks ago. It is so good when they melt just a little..." Cody waved his hand, cutting me off, not wanting to hear anymore.

"I'll take your word for it, sweetness." He kissed my forehead and took the container from me. "How do I do it?" I told Cody how to mix them in when the eggs were almost done. "Go on and sit down. I'll bring them to you." I sat down and noticed that Cody had his laptop open on the table but it had gone to the screensaver. I touched the little mouse pad and it went away, revealing what he had been looking at. I smiled. He'd been looking at baby furniture. I smiled up at him when he brought our breakfast over to the table.

"I'm not gonna lie, Georgia. This looks gross." He said, sitting my eggs down in front of me. They looked perfect to me. I scooped my fork in and took a bite.

"Mmm. So good." I scooped up another bite. "You want to try it?" I held the fork out to him. He sighed and shrugged.

"Sure. Why not? I've tried everything else." He took the bite I offered.

"So?" He shook his head.

"Yeah, Georgie, that's gross." I shrugged it off.

"That's okay." I took another bite. "More for me." He just shook his head with a grin and dug into his own eggs. "So, were you doing some shopping without me?" I asked, nodding towards the computer. He took a sip of his juice and shook his head.

"Not really. I was reading that baby magazine you had in the den and there was an article about the best cribs on the market today and I was doing some comparisons online. I wasn't going to buy anything without talking it over with you first." He reached across the table and took my hand. "I promise." I just smiled.

"So, what did you find out, daddy?" That earned me a big smile from Cody. He proceeded to tell me the pros and cons of each crib on the list. I ended up on Cody's side of the table. Before I could sit in my own chair, he pulled me gently down into his lap. I was leaned against his chest as he flipped back and forth between our choices.

"Well, which one do you like the best, sweetness? This one," he clicked on one that was a finished honey colored wood that could turn into a daybed when he got a little older, "or this one?" He clicked to a darker wood crib that matched the woodwork we already had in the house and could turn into a big boy bed when he was ready for it. I tapped the screen.

"This one. I like this one the best. It'll go perfect in his room and it will go well with the monkey motifs we agreed on." We had already picked out the room color and Cody had already painted the walls a soft pale green.

"That one it is then." He proceeded to order the crib and found out that he could pick it up from the store that was maybe 20 minutes away and he could pick it up in an hour. "This is perfect, Georgie. I'll go pick it up and you can sit in that rocking chair we found last week and watch me put it together. Then we'll put up some of the monkey stuff we bought yesterday." I sat up and kissed him.

"Deal."

* * *

About a half an hour later, Cody was on his way to pick up the crib and I was carrying a few towels to change them out in the downstairs bathroom before I carried the rest upstairs to our bathroom. I was heading down the hall when there was a heavy-handed knock at the front door. Blue barked once at me and trotted off to the door. I followed behind him, wondering who could be at the door. We weren't expecting anyone for any deliveries. I smiled to myself as I thought it might be Cody back quicker than I expected. My happy smile quickly faded when I opened the door to find one of the last people I ever expected.

"So this is the right house. Good to know." Dusty said, the unhappiness and anger dripping from every word.

"What are you doing here?" I asked nervously.

"Where's my son?"

"He's not here." He shoved past me and walked into the house.

"Don't give me that bullshit. I know he's in town. Where is he?"

"I told you, he's not here. Didn't you notice his truck was gone?" He turned back to face me.

"Don't get smart with me, girlie." He turned to yell up the stairs. "Cody!" His yell was unexpected and scared me, making me drop the towels I had been holding. Dusty caught that movement out of the corner of his eye and turned back to me. I saw in his eyes the second he saw my belly. "Son of a bitch. Is that real?" I step back and smacked his hand away as he made like he was going to touch me. I put my hands over my belly protectively.

"Of course our baby is real. What kind of question is that?" He shrugged.

"I know how you kind of girls are. You'll do anything to keep your meal ticket. And I see you found the number one way to hook your filthy claws into my son. You knew he'd never leave you if you were knocked up. No matter how badly he probably wants to." He leaned in, trying to intimidate me. "How'd you pull it off? Lie about being on the pill? Did you poke holes in the rubber?"

"No. I would never do that. I was just as surprised as Cody was." I said quietly. His intimidation was really working on me. He laughed out loud.

"So now you're an actress as well as a gold digging whore. Yeah, sure you were surprised." He glared at me. "Are you even sure that little bastard belongs to Cody? How are you gonna explain to him when that kid grows up to look like one of those richy rich bastards your family runs with, huh?"

"Shut up. I would never do that to Cody." He pointed to my belly.

"Looks like you already did." I didn't want to cry in front of Dusty but I was unable to stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks.

"Why are you doing this? What did I ever do to make you hate me like this? Why can't you just be happy for us?"

"Cause I refuse to let my son be attached to a horrible bitch like you for the rest of his life. And I'll be damned if I let him raise another man's bastard. The moment you pop that kid out, I'm demanding a DNA test. And if you got lucky and it does belong to Cody, I'll personally make sure that you are kept as far away from it as possible. Your time bleeding my boy dry is over."

"Get out." I said softly.

"Excuse me?"

"Get out!" I yelled. "Get the hell out of my house!"

"Not till I see Cody." He said, crossing his arms and standing his ground.

"You don't have a choice. This is our house. Now leave!"

"Who the hell do you think you are to demand anything of me? You no good…"

"Georgia?!" I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding at the sound of Cody's voice coming from just outside the front door. He must have been worried because when Dusty had shoved his way into the house, the front door was left wide open. Cody jogged in the door and stopped short when he found me back against the wall, crying and his father in my face. "What the hell is going on? What are you doing here?" He questioned of his father, coming to stand in front of me.

"I came to see you, son. We need to talk." He looked over Cody's shoulder to glare at me. "I need to talk some sense into you." Cody took a step over, blocking Dusty's view of me.

"Talk sense into me? You think you know what's best for me, right?" Dusty nodded.

"I do. I'm your father."

"Then act like it! What kind of father barges into his son's home and scares his pregnant wife?"

"How do you even know that kid is…" Cody cut him off quickly.

"Don't you fuckin' dare go where you were just about to go with that." I laid my hand flat on Cody's back, trying to keep him calm so he didn't say something he might regret.

"Come on, Cody. We both know what kind of girl she is. Do you really want to be saddled with a whore for the rest of your life just because that kid_ might_ be yours?"

"That's it! I won't have you stand there and insult Georgia in her own home. She doesn't need this shit and frankly, neither do I. Get out of my house."

"Is this how you really want this to go, Cody?" Dusty asked, making his way out the front door.

"This is your doing, dad. Not mine." Before he could say another nasty word, Cody slammed the door shut in his face and locked it. I had moved from my place against the wall. Blue came out from under the coffee table where he had run to hide when Dusty started to yell. Cody walked back to stand in front of me. "You okay, Georgia? Did he touch you? Did he hurt you? Is the baby okay?" The tears were still trickling down my cheeks.

"We're okay. He didn't touch me but he tried. He just scared the hell out of me." I said softly. I stepped into his open arms that he wrapped around me and pulled me close.

"I'm so sorry, sweetness. I can't for the life of me figure out why he's doing this. I know that our fathers don't like each other over some deal that went wrong twenty years ago, but I don't know why they're taking it out on us." He kissed my forehead. "I'm going to look into getting some security cameras installed. So that when I'm away, you have a little more protection." I nodded.

"Whatever you want, Cody. I'm okay with anything you want." He kissed me softly, laying a hand on my belly.

"We were having such a good day. Let's get back to it."

"Okay, baby." I said, smiling up at him, trying to put the last half an hour out of my mind. He smiled back and changed the subject.

"So when I went in to pay for the crib, I found this giant monkey that you're going to love. This monkey is going to be bigger than him for a good four to five years." I laughed.

"Where are we going to put a monkey that big?" He took my hand and led me to the door.

"I figured we could set it in the corner and when he gets a little bigger, we can set it by the crib. You know, if he tries to climb out, he'll land on the monkey and not the floor." Cody explained with a smile.

"Okay. If you say so, Code." I leaned up and gave him another kiss. "Come on, daddy. Let's go see your giant monkey."

* * *

Dusty slam the door shut behind him. He had never been so pissed in his life. That little Cooper bitch had her claws in Cody deep. Now that she was pulling the pregnant bullshit, it was going to be so much harder to get his son out of that mess.

"There you are, Honey. Where did you head off to so early this morning?" Michelle asked him as she walked out of the kitchen.

"I went to see Cody." He dropped down into his chair. "Have you talked to him lately?" She nodded.

"I talked to him the other day. Why?" He shook his head.

"I guess he didn't tell you then." He sighed. "That Cooper girl," he refused to call her by her name, "is knocked up. She's saying Cody's the father." Michelle covered her mouth and sat down across from him. She knew she had to play it cool. She didn't want Dusty to know that she actually already knew about the baby. It seemed the only person that wasn't upset about Cody and Georgia was her. She actually adored Georgia. She could tell that her son was crazy in love with her as well. When Dusty had gone out of town for work, Michelle had even had dinner with the two of them a few times. Hell, she'd even had lunch with Georgia a couple of times, just the two of them. They had made her promise not to tell Dusty any of it and she was going to keep her promise. She didn't want them to stop talking to her as well.

"Oh. Wow." She said, feigning shock.

"I know." He agreed. "I don't know how she thinks she's gonna be able to pass off another man's child as our son's. I refuse to let her get away with it."

"What if the baby really is his, honey?" Michelle asked, trying to show Dusty some logic.

"Then we'll make sure Cody get sole custody of it."

"Do you think that's fair to her? She_ is_ the mother." Dusty nodded.

"He was tricked into this sham of the marriage and she doesn't deserve to be in an innocent baby's life. I just want her gone." Michelle bit her tongue. She wanted to argue with him on their behalf but she knew it would do no good in his current mood.

"Cody's not going to know for that, Dusty. Whether you see it or not, he does seem to care for her." He shook his head.

"Then we'll just have to make him see her for how she really is. If I just had…" He stopped mid-word as an idea came to him.

"Just had what?" He didn't say anything as he stood up. He leaned down and kissed Michelle.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm going to take care of this. I'm gonna help our boy out of this mess." Dusty headed to his office, shut and locked the door behind himself. Not that he didn't trust his wife, he just didn't want her to be involved in this. He clicked his computer off of the screen saver and did a search for the number he needed. He got the number and did his best to tamp down on his anger as a young lady answered.

_"Cooper, Steele and Gregory. How can I help you today?"_

"I need Mr. Cooper's office please."

_"Please hold for me while I send your call through. Have a good day."_ Dusty gritted his teeth as he suffered through the irritating classical they had as hold music. He was about to hang up when someone finally answered.

_"Mr. Cooper's office. Joy speaking. How can I help you today, sir?"_

"I need to talk to Mr. Cooper."

_"May I ask who's calling?"_ Dusty new he couldn't give his real name because Cooper would never take his call. He thought quick.

"This is Doug Ruben. I'm calling on behalf of Vince McMahon of the WWE. He would like to speak to Mr. Cooper about possibly doing some work for us."

_"Of course, sir. Hold on for just a second so I can check if I can just put your call right through."_ She put him on hold again but this time it was only for about 30 seconds._ "Okay Mr. Rubens, I'm going to transfer you to him."_

"Thanks." After one ring, he picked up.

_"Cooper."_

"Cooper, it's Dusty Runnels and don't hang up before you hear what I have say." Harrison sighed.

_"Why shouldn't I hang up on you? You lied to get your call through and you're already wasting my time."_

"Look, neither of us likes the other but we do have a mutual want here."

_"And what would that be?"_

"Neither of us wants our kids married to each other." Harrison was quiet for a moment.

_"That _is_ true."_

"When was the last time you or your wife talked to your daughter?"

_"I don't know. A couple months I guess. She won't really take our calls since that whole thing at Thanksgiving. Why?"_ Dusty decided to just drop the news on him.

"Cause your girl's knocked up and she's saying that it's my son's." Harrison was quiet so long this time that Dusty was sure he had hung up. "Hello? Cooper? You still there?"

_"Yeah. I'm still here."_ Dusty heard him take a deep breath._ "Are you sure? Are you sure Georgia's pregnant?"_

"I am. I saw it with my own eyes and when I questioned her about it, she confirmed it. Plus, when Cody came in he went into super protector mode and confirmed it as well."

_"My daughter would never lie about who the father is."_

"Be that as it may, whether or not Cody's the father, we still don't want them together."

_"No. No we don't."_

"Good. So I have an idea. Do you know any of your girl's exes?"

_"I know a couple. Why?"_ Dusty smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"Okay, so here's what I was thinking…"

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	10. Chapter 10

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, Kinley Orton, Livin on the EDGE AND foldintothenight. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ Here is chapter 10. Enjoy!**

I laid my head back against Cody's chest as I stroked my hand up and over his wet knee. Cody cupped the bathwater in his hand and dribbled the water over my belly, where it was sticking up over the surface and let it run down the sides.

"You don't have to pick it just because I said it as a joke, sweetness." He said, laying his cheek against my temple.

"I know you were joking when you said it but I think it goes really good with the name we already picked for him." I laid my hand on my belly, rubbing softly. "Unless you want him to have your name as his middle name." Cody dribbled more water on my belly as he thought about it. We had been playing around with our baby boy's middle name for a few weeks and had yet to find what we thought sounded good.

"No. Nothing from my name sounds right." He laid his hand beside mine. "I think we may have finally made up our minds, sweetness." I smiled and laid my hand over his.

"I think so. It's perfect. Jordan Parker Runnels."

"Our boy's finally got a full name." He kissed my temple. "I like it, Georgie." I laughed and grabbed Cody's hand, moving it lower on my belly as the baby started kicking.

"I think he does too." Cody laughed too as Jordan kicked against his palm.

"That's still the most amazing thing ever." I nodded, agreeing.

"Just wait till he's here and we can touch his little feet for real."

"I can't…" Cody was cut off by my phone ringing in the bedroom. He sat us up. "You want me to go get that for you?"

"Naw. If it's important, they'll leave a message or call back. Although," I held my hand up, "maybe we should get out. I'm getting pretty pruny." Cody chuckled and kissed my cheek. He scooted me forward a bit and stood up. He climbed out and wrapped a dry towel around his waist. I flipped the plug and let the water start to drain out as Cody helped me stand up and step out of the tub. He sat on the closed toilet as he handed me a towel. "I love when you're home and I can take a bath. For one, I can't get in and out by myself anymore and two, the weight gets lifted off of me. For a while anyway." He smiled up at me as I struggled a little to get my T-shirt over my still damp belly. He took the edge of it for me and pulled it down the rest of the way. He ran his palms over the shirt, smoothing it out before laying his forehead against me.

"Hey there, Jordan. It's me, your daddy." I was trying not to cry at the vision of Cody leaned against me, talking to our unborn son. I reached out and ran my fingers through his wet hair, holding him close. "Mommy and I can't wait to meet you, kiddo. You'll never know how much I already love you." He stood up and cupped my face. "Or how much I love you." He said to me, kissing me softly. "Why are you crying, sweetness?"

"I just love you. So much." I snaked my arms around him and held him tight. He stroked my hair, rubbing my back. He pulled back to smile at me.

"Come on, Georgie. Let's get you into bed." I smiled at him and nodded. Cody walked with me and made a big production of helping me lay down, covering me up and giving me the remote and my phone. "I think I remember seeing some chocolate ice cream in the freezer earlier. You want some?" He asked as he pulled on some boxers and took his towel back into the bathroom.

"Oh, yes I do. And there's a new box of cheese crackers in the pantry. Can you get those too?" He made a face.

"Chocolate ice cream and cheese crackers? That's really going to give you heartburn." Yeah, I'd been suffering with that for a couple weeks.

"Not together, baby. I just want both." He just smiled, nodded and headed down to the kitchen to retrieve my snacks.

I flipped on the TV and decided to check the messages on my phone. I checked the last number. It was the same number that had called me earlier in the day and I still had no clue who it was. I was listening to the message when Cody came back in. All I could hear was some background noise and someone breathing softly before they hung up. The message was maybe 20 seconds max. I deleted the message and tossed the phone on the bed beside a sleeping Blue as Cody handed me my bowl of ice cream.

"Let me guess," Cody said, climbing in his side of the bed, "Annie, right?" He said with a smile. I shook my head.

"Actually, no. I don't know who it is. They called me earlier but this time they left a message." I told him, taking a bite of the ice cream. His smile faded.

"What was the number? Can I see?" I shrugged.

"Sure, baby. If you want to." I pointed to where the phone was lying on the bed. I watched him scan through the last couple of calls. "What are you looking for, Code?"

"I just want to make sure it wasn't my father trying to scare you again." Ever since the 'incident' with Dusty a couple months ago, Cody had been worried that he would try the same thing when he was out of town or start calling me on the phone. Cody had even gone as far as to put up the security cameras he talked about. So far, Dusty had done nothing. He laid my phone back down. "It's not him. I don't know that number either."

"I'm sure it's just someone with a wrong number." I assured him. Cody agreed. I set my now empty bowl on the nightstand. I wiggled as best as I could to lay against his side. He wrapped an arm around me and laid his other hand on my belly.

"Are you sure that the doctor said you were okay for tomorrow?" Tomorrow morning, Cody and I were flying to New York for a benefit that the WWE was throwing for one of the charities that they worked with. Current and former Superstars/Divas were highly encouraged to be there and bring their significant others or a date. That meant Annie would be there too.

"Yes. She said it should be fine but it will probably be the last big trip until after Jordan is born." I turned my head to look up at him. "That is if you want me to go." He laughed softly.

"Of course I want you to go. Why wouldn't I want you to go?" I just held out my hand on either side of my belly. "I wouldn't want you to go cause you're pregnant?" I shook my head.

"No. Not that. It's just...this doesn't look as good all dressed up like it used to." Cody just shook his head and kissed me.

"We both know that's not true. You are more beautiful today than the day I met you." I started to disagree but he stopped me. "You're carrying our son. You're creating a life." He rubbed my belly. "How is that not beautiful, Georgie?" He kissed me again. "Plus, mom sent me a picture of the dress you two picked out. You and Jordan are gonna look amazing." And as if Jordan could hear Cody's voice, he started to kick. I moved Cody's hand right over the spot and smiled at him.

"I think he agrees." He kissed me.

"I can't wait to show you two off to everyone, sweetness."

* * *

The deep emerald green dress with the empire waist that Michelle talked me into was a big hit. Cody was slowly walking us through the room so he could stop nearly every single person we passed. They would exchange pleasantries and then Cody would turn to me. "And this is my beautiful wife, Georgia." Then he would rub my belly to draw their attention to how pregnant I was. Not that they couldn't notice the beach ball I was carrying under my dress. By the 50th person, I was ready to drop. I squeezed his hand and leaned in close to him.

"Baby, I know you want to show us off but I really need to sit down for a little while." I said softly. He shook his head at himself and kissed me.

"I'm sorry, Georgie. Of course you do. I wasn't thinking. Come on, sweetness. Let's get you to our table." By the time we got there, Annie and Randy were already there. Neither of them had seen me in two months and were both surprised at how big I had gotten.

"Oh my God, peaches. You look so beautiful. Your glow and that belly. He's getting so big." I nodded as Cody and Randy went off to find me something to drink.

"I know. We finally picked out a name too." Annie got excited.

"So..."

"Jordan Parker."

"That's so adorable. This is going to be the most spoiled little boy in history." She told me with a smile. I reached for her hand and laid it on my belly. She laughed as Jordan kicked hard against her palm.

"He loves the sound of that." I told her as Ava and Becky joined us. They both went crazy over seeing how big I had gotten. Jordan loved the attention and they both got to feel him kicking.

I was trying to talk the girls out of throwing me a baby shower when someone joined our little 'party'.

"You guys are having just too much fun over here." I looked up and instantly recognized the Diva, Jayde. She was currently a heel that had worked with Cody a time or two. She plastered on a ridiculously fake smile and turned to me. She held out her hand. "Hi there. I'm Lexis Conroy or as most people know me, Jayde." Becky rolled her eyes behind her back.

"She knows who you are, Lexis." She said.

"You do?" Lexis said with overly fake surprise. I nodded.

"I do. I've seen you try and cozy up to my husband a time or two on TV." I told her, a bit of jealousy flaring up. But to be honest I couldn't stop it if I wanted to. She was standing there in front of me with that perfect body, showing it off in a skintight dress that left little to the imagination and I was sitting there looking like I swallowed a globe.

"Really? What did you say your name was?" She asked, shaking my hand.

"She didn't." Ava mumbled under her breath. If Lexis heard her, she didn't show it.

"Georgia. Georgia Runnels." I said, politely taking my hand back. I was getting some serious 'I think I'm better than you' vibes from her. She reminded me a lot of the last guy mom tried to set me up with, Douglas Wellington. Just the thought of that guy had me suppressing the urge to shudder.

"Runnels, huh? You're married to Dustin?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"You know she's not." Becky said.

"It's Cody? You're married to Cody?" She asked like that surprised her. I nodded.

"Yes I am." I told her, laying a hand on my belly, instantly drawing her eyes there.

"Wow. He never told me that." She said softly. I'm not sure anyone else heard her, but I sure did. "Well, anyway," she plastered back on her fake smile, "congratulations with," she gestured with her hand at my belly, "everything." I was about to tell her where to stick her congratulations, when Cody finally came back to the table.

"Sorry that took so long, Georgie." He set the drink down on the table and kissed me. "There was a line a mile long just to get a drink." Annie shifted a seat over so that Cody could sit down. When she moved, I noticed that Lexis was gone. Not that I really cared. I was pretty sure I didn't like her much. I took a sip of my drink when Cody laid his arm over the back of my chair, leaning in as the lights started to dim signaling the ceremony was about to start. "You and Jordan okay, sweetness?" He asked softly. I turned my head a smiled at him.

"We're okay, Code." He smiled back kissing me softly.

Later that evening, when we got back to our hotel, I was finally able to take off my shoes like I had been desperate to all night. Of course my feet had swollen up and the shoes became uncomfortably tight. The moment I cleared the door, I leaned against the wall and toed off the shoes.

"What's wrong, sweetness?" Cody asked, rubbing my lower back as he stopped beside me.

"Those shoes are the spawn of the devil. My feet are swollen and those evil shoes didn't give any." I whined, kicking one of the shoes with my toes. "Can we burn them when we get home?" Cody laughed softly.

"Sure. Whatever you want, Georgie." I turned to smiled at him.

"That's why I love you." He smiled back and kissed my nose.

With Cody's help, I got out of the equally evil, did not want to cooperate, dress and into my comfy pjs. Once I got settled in the bed, Cody climbed in about halfway down and took my feet into his lap. The moment he started to massage them, I whimpered in relief. It wasn't long before I was moaning in pleasure at the feel of his thumbs working over my soles. Cody raised a questioning eyebrow at the sound.

"Feel good, Georgie?" I nodded.

"God yes. It feels so good. You have magic hands, baby." He smiled at me. I sighed as my phone rang. I leaned over and grabbed it off the nightstand.

"Hey, Annie." I answered.

"Hey, Georgie. Your feet feel better now?"

"Yes. My amazing husband is rubbing them right now." I said. Cody just shook his head, not bothering to hide his own smile.

"Speaking of your husband, have either of you been on twitter tonight?"

"Nope. Not tonight. Why?"

"So apparently, someone took pictures at the event tonight."

"Yeah, I saw those photographers all over the place."

"No, Georgia. This wasn't one of those guys. These are pictures from someone's phone."

"Oh, okay. So what does that have to do with twitter?"

"Well, it seems that whoever took these pictures sold them and a story to some of the dirt sheets. Mostly the ones of you and Cody."

"So there are pictures of Cody and I together online." Cody looked up at that. "What does that matter? People are bound to see us together."

"I know. The pictures themselves aren't the problem. The story that went with them is the issue."

"What does the story say?"

"There's a story?" Cody asked me. I nodded and turned my phone on speaker.

"The story says that Cody was seen with a pregnant woman tonight and the rumor going around was that she was trying to pass herself off as his wife. That you were lying to people and telling them that you and Cody are married and the person writing this story could find no evidence of Cody being married."

"So what? It's just a story, right?" Cody added. Annie sighed.

"I know it's just a story to you guys but it's hit twitter. The 'fans' are going apeshit and trashing Georgia BIG time." Annie told him. "The only good thing is they didn't say your name, Georgie. They also don't know your twitter handles."

"It can't be that bad, Annie." I said, handing Cody my phone and grabbing my laptop off the table beside me. I scooted to sit all the way up and opened it on the bed in front of me. I was proven wrong the moment I pulled up twitter. "Wow." I said in surprise. "All this from a story that isn't even true?"

"Yeah, well, they don't know that. Some of those 'fans' take those stories as gospel." Annie said. "Sorry, Georgie." I sighed.

"Not your fault, Annie. See you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Night you two."

"Night." Cody and I said together and he hung up the phone. Cody scooted up the bed to sit beside me. He slipped a hand behind me to rub my lower back.

"Is it as bad as Annie said?" He asked, leaning in so he could read my timeline. I laid my head against his.

"Yeah. They hate me for using you." Cody turned his head slightly and kissed my temple.

"Don't take it personal, sweetness. Our private life is none of their business. Let them think what they want." I nodded.

"Can I still correct them?" I asked with a smile. He laughed.

"By all means. Have at it. And if they get too irritating, you can tell them the truth. I don't care at all."

"Thank you." I clicked in the spot for a new message.

**crossrhodes4me**: Wow! So much unnecessary hate. Don't you think the story could be true? Maybe they are married and they're happy keeping it private.

To my surprise, I was jumped the moment my tweet hit their timelines. I got a lot of, 'There's no way it's true.' and 'It would be too hard to hide something like that.' and "How come his friends don't talk about it?'. I let most of them go and didn't answer until I got one certain one.

_**JaydeRox**: crossrhodes4me I know for a fact that the story is true._

Was that a challenge? It looked like it might be.

**crossrhodes4me**: JaydeRox How do you know for a 'fact'?

_**JaydeRox**: crossrhodes4me Because I have it on good authority that Cody Rhodes is dating one of the Divas._

**crossrhodes4me**: JaydeRox Oh really? Which one?

I turned to Cody as I hit send. "Did you know that you were dating a Diva?" I asked him. I leaned back against the headboard and rubbed my lower belly where Jordan was playing what felt like soccer. He grinned.

"I am?" Who is it?" I shrugged.

"This person hasn't answered me back yet. And you know what?" I shut my laptop. "I'm too tired to wait up and see." I laid my laptop to the side and settled down in the bed. Cody clicked off the light and laid down, facing me so that he could rub the belly.

"Maybe they'll have an answer for you in the morning." I kissed Cody softly before settling my forehead against his cheek.

"Maybe they will."

The next morning, I noticed that JaydeRox hadn't answered and to be honest, I didn't care in the least. I did however notice that most of the hoopla had died down. I seemed that tweeters had been asking people they knew were friends of Cody's if the story was true. No one had bothered to answer then but Randy. He must have gotten fed up with the hundreds of questions and finally tried to put a stop to it.

_**RandyOrton**: Look, don't believe everything you read. I happen to know that Cody's VERY happy in the relationship that he's in. Let it go._

Yeah, Randy was my hero. I sent him a DM letting him know. Later that day, I got one back saying,_ 'Anytime, peaches. ;)'_

* * *

Later in the week, when Cody and I were home, we went in for one of my routine checkups. I was closing in on my eighth month when my appointments would start to be once a week. This one, however was just a quick ultrasound, exam and blood work.

Dr. Palmer was sending us home with new pictures that I was adding to Jordan's baby book and a good report.

"What were you thinking about for lunch, sweetness?" Cody asked me. We were walking down the hall towards the doors that would lead us back to the waiting room. He had his hand on my lower back, guiding me along. I was a little slower now that I had developed the pregnancy waddle. Of course, Cody thought it was adorable.

"I want a big cheeseburger and onion rings." Cody nodded.

"Yeah, that sounds good. How about the diner?" I smiled. The diner, the place where we had breakfast after the first time we made love. Where we had confessed our love to each other. That diner was our private, special place.

"That's perfect." Cody smiled back at me as he reached past me to push open the door to the waiting room. I looked down at the folder in my hand. I hoped I hadn't left anything. Just as I took a step forward, someone took a step into the doorway. We bounced off of each other a step or two. Cody steadied me with an arm around me as my folder fluttered to the floor, spilling the contents.

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry, dear." The lady instantly knelt down to the floor. "Let me get these for you." I looked down as she scooped up the papers. God if she didn't remind me of my mother.

"Thank you." I said to her. I watched her hesitate as she picked up the ultrasound photos. She smoothed her finger over the top portion of the paper that said, 'Runnels, Georgia – week 32'. I was about to ask her for my stuff back when she looked up at me. "Momma?" She stood up and actually looked at me for the first time.

"Georgia. Oh my God, Georgia." She said with tears in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tight. I didn't realize how much I missed her until that moment. I close my eyes as my own tears started. Neither my mom nor I felt it when Cody gently pulled us out of the doorway and stepped away so that me and mom could have our moment. "I've missed you so much, sweetheart." She said softly to me, stroking my hair. "I knew it was a stupid idea to follow what your father said." She leaned back so she could look at me. "I just knew we would miss out on something big." She wiped the tears from my face. "And this," she looked down at my belly, "is certainly big."

"I've missed you too." I told her softly. She hugged me again. When she pulled back, she smiled at me and Cody.

"I came here to surprise Lily and take her to lunch, but I think there's been a change of plans." She took my hand. "I want to take you and Cody to lunch. My treat." I had to laugh.

"Me and who?" Never once had she ever called Cody by his name. She smiled, catching on.

"You and my son-in-law, Cody. Come on. You two can catch me up on everything about my grandchild."

"Son, grandson." Cody said, coming to my side and putting his arm around me. "His name is Jordan." She started to tear up again. She smiled at us.

"My grandson, Jordan."

* * *

Mom had wanted to take us to a big fancy lunch until I told her how badly I was craving onion rings. She just nodded and instead took us to a small mom-and-pop restaurant that turned out to have amazing onion rings and strawberry milkshakes. Yeah, I dipped the onion rings in the shake. No one else seemed to think it tastes is good as I did.

I couldn't tell you how many times mom apologized to me and Cody. She knew she was in the wrong when she saw us together at Thanksgiving but for some reason she kept listening to the crap dad was feeding her.

Mom suddenly sat back in her chair. "Oh my."

"What?" I asked, instantly worried.

"I just realized...when I gave you the grief about gaining weight at Thanksgiving...you were pregnant then weren't you?" I smiled softly and nodded. "That's what you brought us all there to tell us wasn't it?"

"Yeah, that and the married part." Cody said. Mom just shook her head.

"I've been so stupid. Why I listened to your father about this is beyond me. I'm so sorry. I hope you'll forgive me and not shut me out anymore." I reached out and took her hand.

"As long as you forgive us for keeping you in the dark." I told her, squeezing her hand. "You have to understand why we did it that way. Look at how bad it turned out when our dads found out about us being married. I was terrified of what would happen when we said something about the baby."

"And I swore I would make this pregnancy as stress-free as I possibly could." Cody added. Mom smiled.

"And how is that coming along?" I turned and smiled up at Cody.

"He's doing an amazing job, momma." Cody kissed me softly.

"Except that one time."

"Well that wasn't his fault." I said, telling mom about the time Dusty showed up at her door unexpectedly.

"I swear. Our children are more mature than we are." Telling mom about Dusty's 'visit' gave me an idea.

"Momma, would you like to come see our house? I'll give you the grand tour and show you Jordan's room. It's pretty much finished. I'm sure Blue will love you."

"Blue?"

"Georgia's pug. And the worst guard dog ever." Cody said with a laugh. "Most of the time you'll find him on his back asleep wherever Georgia is."

"Hey, to be fair, he guards me a lot on the couch." I said with a laugh, poking Cody in the stomach. He smiled and kissed my temple. I turned back to mom. She was watching us with her own smile on her face.

"You two are really happy, aren't you?" She asked.

"I've never been happier, Mrs. Cooper. I don't think I could find the words to describe how happy. I love her so much." I looked at my hands in my lap, blinking, trying not to cry. Damn these hormones. Everything made me cry these days. Cody's hand crept into my line of vision, snagging one of my own and lacing our fingers. "I love them both." He said when I looked up. He gave me his little half smile.

"I don't even need to ask you, Georgia. I can see it in your face." She shook her head. "Your father is an idiot." She said with a huge smile. "And I'd love to see your home."

* * *

Mom seemed very impressed with our house. And as I predicted, Blue loved her. Not that Blue was heavy or anything but Cody didn't want me carrying him around anymore. So mom got that honor. She carried him all through the house until we got to Jordan's room which we saved until last. Mom put him down and asked Cody for a pen and a notepad. When he came back, I was made to sit in a rocking chair and take notes. She walked around the room spouting off things that needed to be done and what else needed to be purchased. I had to smile. That was the bossy, take charge mom I knew and loved.

Sometime later that evening, after her lists were made and later dates for dinners and lunches were also made, mom headed home. She left with the promise that she would keep my pregnancy from dad. Hopefully, she'd be able to hold off until Jordan was born.

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	11. Chapter 11

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ I thought since it has been so long since I posted a chapter, I'd hit you with two at one time. Here is chapter 11. Enjoy!**

Sadly, the rest of our week came and went quickly and before I knew it, Monday morning had rolled around and Blue and I were dropping Cody off at the airport. I hated sending him off but I held on to the fact that he would be home in a couple of days. Before we went home, Blue and I stopped at a local dog park. I wanted to let Blue run and play. If I was lucky, he'd burn off his early-morning energy and I could grab a nap when I got home before I had to go into work in the afternoon. That was, if Jordan would let me. He must've thought my belly was Romper Room last night. He wasn't still at all. He seemed to be relatively calm this morning so I guess we'd see.

After about an hour at the park, Blue and I loaded up and headed home. And as predicted, Blue headed right for his doggy bed and was out like a light. I decided that instead of tackling the stairs, I would lay down on the couch beside Blue's bed and nap there. Just as I sat down, my phone rang. I smiled to myself as I picked it up and answered.

"Hi, baby."

_"Hey, Georgie."_ Cody answered.

"You've landed already?"

_"Not yet but were getting ready to. I just might not get to talk to you until before the show so I wanted to call and tell you I love you."_

"I love you too, Cody. I miss you. We both do."

_"I miss you guys too. I'll be home tomorrow evening. I'll take a cab from the airport and pick you up at work, okay?"_

"Okay, baby. Thank goodness I only have this week and next before I go on maternity leave. Jordan's getting kinda heavy to carry around." Cody laughed.

_"I'm sure he is. But just think, a few more weeks and he'll be here. And then I can carry him for a while."_ That made me laugh. _"Damn. I gotta go, Georgia. They're telling me to turn off my phone."_

"Okay. Love you, Cody."

_"Love you too, sweetness."_ We exchanged goodbyes and hung up.

I was just about to lay down when there was a knock on the door. I contemplated ignoring it but it didn't seem to be stopping. The knocking even woke up a sleeping Blue. He trotted over to the door and barked at the knocks. There was no way I could ignore it now. I worked myself off the sofa and waddled to the front door.

"Enough, Blue." I told him as I unlocked the door. He stood up, leaning against my leg padding at me so I would pick him up. I couldn't deny that little face. "Okay, but don't tell daddy." I scooped Blue up and opened the door. The man was standing there with his back to us looking out at the yard. "Can I help you?" He turned around at the sound of my voice. I blinked in surprise.

"So I was given correct information. It's good to see you, Georgia." Douglas Wellington. An unwanted blast from the past.

"Douglas, what are you doing here? Who in the hell told you where I lived?" He smiled when I'm sure he assumed was an attractive smile but it just made me wary.

"A little birdie told me that you had gotten married and you are expecting. I felt the need to come and see if it was true." He glanced down at my belly. "And I see they were right." He took a step forward and I surprise myself when I didn't step back. Douglas held up a bouquet of flowers I didn't notice him holding before. "I came to offer my congratulations to you and your lucky husband. Is he here?"

"He just left for work." I mentally slapped my forehead. Why in the hell did I tell him that?

"That's a shame. Can I come in?" I sighed. If I said no, he was probably going to insist and come in anyway. If I said yes, maybe I could set the rules.

"Okay but only for a few minutes." I stepped to the side and let him walk in. I thought for a second about leaving the front door open but then thought better of it. If Blue decided to wander out, I'd never be able to chase after him. I shut the door and walked over to put Blue down on the sofa. I found Douglas looking at a few pictures that I had framed on a side table. He held one up.

"Is this you and the lucky guy?" It was a picture of me, Cody and blue all curled together in the backyard.

"Yes. His name is Cody." I took the picture from him and set it back down, only to have him pick up another one.

"He looks so familiar to me. I know him from somewhere." He showed me one from backstage at some event. It was Randy, Ted and Cody. It was an outtake from one of their Legacy photo shoots. It didn't make the cut but I still loved it. "Holy shit. Cody Rhodes, the wrestler. You're married to him?" I took the picture away.

"Yes. You happy now that you know?" He just smiled.

"And you're happy? With him and being knocked up?" I took a deep breath, trying to keep from getting angry.

"Yes I am. I'm very happy with Cody and we're both over the moon about our baby." He just nodded, almost like he didn't believe me.

"It just seems awfully soon."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's just...I would have done things differently."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm just saying, I never would have forced you to have a baby so soon. Unless, of course, you were just looking for a way not to have sex with him." He shook his head. "That's a shame. He must be really shitty in the sack." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"No one forced me to have a baby. And not that it matters what you think but Cody's and my sex life is perfectly fine." He smirked and leaned in closer to me.

"That's only cause you never let me hit it. I would blow your fuckin' mind." He glanced at his watch. "You know what? I got a little time today. Why don't I give you a little demo. I don't even mind that you're pregnant. That just means I'll have something to hold onto as I take you from behind."

"You're a disgusting bastard, you know that? You have balls of steel to think you can come into my house and say that shit to me." I step back away from him as he came towards me again. "You have10 seconds to get the hell out of my house and get as far away from me as you can before I call the police." He stopped short for moment.

"Come on, Georgia." He gave me that smile that creeped me out so badly. "You know you want it."

"No. No way in hell. Get out."

"You can't mean that, Georgia." He said quietly. The look on his face had quickly gone from the creepy flirting to an intense look that suddenly had me very afraid of him. I turned around and reached for the phone. Just as my fingers closed around it, Douglas grabbed my upper arm and yanked me back against his chest. "I know you don't mean it." He whispered, his lips brushing the outer edge of my ear. I started to shake just a little as fear began to creep up on me. "You can't tell me you don't want every bit of what I want to give you." He whispered, rubbing his half aroused self against me. He squeezed my arm. "Tell me you want it." I shook my head.

"No." I said softly. That must have pissed him off because he shook me hard a couple of times, making me lose my hold on the phone. It dropped down over the front of the sofa. He laughed. Okay. Now I was officially scared of Douglas.

"Then I guess I'll just make you want it." He shoved me forward, bending me over the back of our chair. I was frozen with his hand on the center of my back holding me down until I heard him working on the buckle of his belt. Some deep down instinct kicked in and I started to fight him. I wiggled and kicked at him as much as I could, just to get him away. "Hold still damn it!" He said, fighting to keep his hold on me. I reached for the phone but it was still just out of my reach. I could get my fingertips around the edge of it but not much farther. My belly was keeping me from getting it.

"Get off me!" I screamed. It didn't faze him in the least. He just kept trying to keep me pinned back down.

"Shut the fuck up!" He growled. I took his momentary lapse in attention to stomp on his foot. "Ow! Bitch!" He backed up just an inch or two but it was it was enough for me to jerk forward and wrap my hand around the phone. The second he grabbed me again, I swung my arm back and hit him in the side of the head with the phone. "Son of a bitch!" He stumbled back enough so that I could turn around and shove him away from me.

"I said 10 second. Now get the hell out!" I yelled with a shaky voice. He held on to the side of his head and took a step towards me. I held up the phone. "10...9...8..."

"All right, all right. I'll go. But you'll see me again." He told me, closing his hand over the doorknob, pulling open the door.

"If you show up here again, you won't make it past the front yard before I call the police."

"We'll see, Georgia." I just slammed the door in his face.

"God, I hope not." I said to the closed door. I walked over and sat down on the sofa. Blue jumped up beside me. He nudged my arm so that I would pet him. By that time, I was starting to come down from the slight adrenaline high I had used to stand up to Douglas. My hand was shaking as I tried to rub Blue's head. He whimpered, sensing my stress. I knew I shouldn't bother Cody so I picked up the phone and call my mom. Lucky for me, dad was out of town on business and she agreed to come stay with me until Cody came home in a day or two.

_"I come on one condition, Georgia." _She said.

"Anything, Momma."

"You call Cody and tell him. He'll want to know, dear." She was right. I agreed and she told me she was on the way. I called Cody as soon as I hung up with mom.

_"Georgia? What's wrong, sweetness?"_ I took a deep breath and told him everything in one go. He let go of a few obscenities. _"Are you okay?"_ He asked.

"Yeah. I'm okay now."

_"Jordan?"_ I rubbed my belly where I could feel him moving.

"Yeah, he's okay too. Momma's on her way. She's gonna stay till you come home. I don't think I'm going back to work. Not until after Jordan comes."

_"That's probably for the best, sweetness. Do you want me to stay on the phone until your mom gets there?"_ I wiped away the tears that hadn't stopped since I shut the door on Douglas.

"Please, baby?"

_"I'm right here, Georgie."_ I was so relieved to see Cody early the next afternoon. I couldn't help but cling to him for the rest of the day.

* * *

Everything stayed nice and quiet until a few days later when I was awakened by the sound of my phone going off beside my head around dawn. I answered with a groggy 'hello'.

_"Georgia."_ The voice said, kind of singing my name. _"You're done. He's finished with you. He doesn't want you anymore."_

"What? Who is this?" I asked the female's voice.

_"He's done with you, Georgia. Cody's mine."_ I heard the line click as they hung up.

"What? Hello?" I felt Cody move in the bed behind me as I hung up myself.

"Who was that, Georgie? What did they want this early in the morning?"

"I don't know." I cuddled back against Cody. "But apparently, you're leaving me." I said. He chuckled.

"Okay." He laid a hand over mine on my belly. "Let's go back to sleep and I'll pack tomorrow." He kissed the back of my shoulder. I nodded and laced my fingers through his. I smiled to myself as I fell back asleep.

I woke up a few hours later to my phone going off again. At least it was morning this time. I reached back for Cody but the bed was empty. I realized that I could hear the shower running. I scooted over and sat myself up on the edge of the bed. I grabbed my phone finding that I had gotten a mention on twitter.

_**JaydeRox**__: __**crossrhodes4me**__ I don't lie_

Attached was a picture. I hit the button to pull up the picture as the shower turned off. The picture popped up as Cody opened the door. He had a towel wrapped low around his waist while rubbing his hair with another towel.

"Morning, sweetness." He said with a smile. I had to smile back.

"Morning, baby." I looked back down at the picture. It was a picture of Cody with his arm around Lexis Conroy.

"What's that, Georgia?" Cody asked as he walked over. I held it up so he could see.

"Someone sent me a picture of you and Lexis Conroy." He looked confused.

"Why?" I just shrugged. "That's from last year. Some signing we did."

"Why did someone send it to me then?" Cody shrugged as well.

"Beats me, Georgia." I decided to ask.

**crossrhodes4me**: **JaydeRox** What does that mean?

She surprised me by answering back quickly.

_**JaydeRox**__: __**crossrhodes4me**__ Just proof that Cody Rhodes is dating a diva. Namely, Jayde._

She sent me four more pictures back to back. All of them with Cody and Lexis. Two backstage, one at a dinner and one sitting on someone's couch. I showed them to Cody and he told me where and what every single one was. This chick was crazy.

**crossrhodes4me**: **JaydeRox **These pictures don't prove a thing.

_**JaydeRox**__: __**crossrhodes4me**__ Haha. They don't? Then why are you so upset, Georgia?_

I blinked in surprise at the screen. She knew my name. My description on twitter still said 'GA Cooper'.

**crossrhodes4me**: **JaydeRox** Excuse me?

_**JaydeRox**__: __**crossrhodes4me**__ What? You didn't think I knew who you were? Do people know how you're trying to get at Cody?_

She sent me a picture of myself at the party. It was a side picture so you could tell I was very pregnant. I was standing just to the side of Cody and it looked like I was trying to get his attention. Not that we were there together.

_**JaydeRox**__: __**crossrhodes4me**__ I will say, you do look nice in that green dress._

"What's wrong, Georgie?" Cody asked sitting down beside me after having thrown on some shorts.

"This person knows who I am. I think it's a crazy female fan. She called me by name. I handed him my phone.

"The only thing she's right about is the green dress but I don't get why she's attacking you." Just as Cody said those words, my phone beeped again.

_**JaydeRox**__: Everyone should know that __**crossrhodes4me**__ is the woman trying to use Cody Rhodes. Her name is Georgia._

"Shit." Cody muttered. This person had thousands of followers. Within 30 seconds, I was bombarded with hate. And it was all extremely nasty. I couldn't help it, I started to cry. Cody took my phone back and wrapped me in his arms. He kissed my temple. "I'm gonna take care of this, sweetness. I'm going to make it stop." I just nodded. He kissed my forehead and headed out of the room. I laid back down, waiting for Cody to come back and rubbed Blue's head as I read the horrible messages I kept getting. About 30 minutes later, Cody came back with his computer in hand. He sat down beside me.

"Okay, Georgia. I made a call to our social media coordinator. They've made an announcement saying that I have an official twitter account. I just changed my name. They're working, as we speak, on getting it verified." I looked at him surprised.

"Why? Why did you do that? I thought you wanted to stay away from that? Stay private?" He smiled softly and kissed me.

"I did...at first. It was fine, until this. I won't let this happen to you anymore. I'm going to tell everyone the truth. I'm going to make them leave you alone." I glanced at my phone as I saw the WWE tweet go out.

_**WWE**__: Everyone welcome Cody Rhodes to our twitter family. Go follow him at __**CodyRhodesWWE**_

"Maybe you should change your name too, sweetness." Cody told me. I shrugged.

"I guess I can. What should I change it to?"

"Just make it your name. Just make it Georgia Runnels. No space or anything."

"You sure?" He smiled.

"Of course I'm sure. And make your profile picture one of us together too." That made me smile.

"Okay." I flipped through my pictures on my phone and found one I really liked. "What about this one?" I showed him one of me grinning at the camera while he was kissing my cheek.

"Perfect." Cody opened his laptop and logged on to twitter. "Damn. I've jumped up 2,000 followers since they announced it. Crazy." He started typing his first new message.

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: Thank you for all your warm welcomes. They are appreciated. _

We both say there and watched the same people, the very same people that were being nasty and hateful to me, tweet Cody and tell them how much they loved him. He just smiled again and started to type.

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: Before we go on, there are some things that need to be said and air that needs to be cleared. _

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: First off, the rumor out there about me being used by an unknown pregnant woman. This couldn't be farther from the truth. _

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: That woman's name is Georgia. Georgia Runnels. Yes, she IS my wife. And yes, she IS pregnant. Very pregnant. _

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: She and I are expecting our first child in a matter of weeks. We couldn't be more excited. _

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: Second and finally, I've seen some horrible unnecessary hate spit at Georgia. That needs to stop. Now!_

_**CodyRhodesWWE**__: At my urging, Georgia has changed her twitter to __**GeorgiaRunnels**__ her name. Please show her the respect she deserves. Thank you. _

I smiled at Cody as his last message popped up and the 'I'm sorrys' started to roll in.

"You didn't have to do that, baby." I told him, cupping his cheek and kissed him softly.

"Yes I did. Go on." He nodded towards my phone. "Call that girl out." I smiled and kissed him again.

**GeorgiaRunnels**: **JaydeRox** You want to try that again? Good luck with that theory you have though. Have a lovely day.

"Perfect, Georgie." Cody said with a smile. **JaydeRox** never replied.

* * *

Cody's 'reveal' and rant on twitter changed the way people were responding to me overnight. The craziness settled down by that evening and was virtually non-existent by the time I took Cody to the airport two days later. He was only gone Sunday and Monday. Tuesday morning I woke up to Cody crawling into the bed with me.

This week was going to be a good one. RAW was in Atlanta so Cody didn't have to fly out and I got to see everyone a few days after I rolled into my eighth month.

Late Thursday afternoon, Cody and I had just returned from a very nice lunch with both of our mothers. When we finally got them together, away from our fathers, they became instant friends.

Cody was playing with Blue in the living room and I was in the kitchen putting away our leftovers, which I would probably have for dinner, when there was a knock on the door. I waddled myself into the living room right as Cody opened the door. Cody was just as taller or even taller than the person at the door so I couldn't see who it was.

"Can I help you with something?" Cody asked.

"Is Georgia here?" I hesitated a step as I recognized that voice. That horrible bastard indeed had balls of steel. I touched Cody's back with a shaking nervous hand, letting him know I was there. Was I afraid? Yes. But I'd be damned if I was going to let him know that I was scared of him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Douglas's smirking face.

"I came to see you like you asked." He said with that same damn smirk.

"I don't recall you being asked to come back. I remember telling you not to show your face here again." I said angrily. Cody wrapped his arm around my shoulders and stepped us backwards.

"How about we do this inside?" Cody said, letting Douglas step inside and shutting the door behind him. "Okay, now who are you?" He asked.

"Douglas Wellington, Georgia's boyfriend." He held out his hand as I made a sound of disbelief. Cody didn't move. "And you are?"

"Cody Runnels, Georgia's husband." Douglas made a face of surprise like he didn't know who Cody was. "What the hell are you doing here?" Douglas looked at me.

"You didn't tell him? You said you were going to tell him."

"Georgia tells me everything." Cody said before I could respond. He squeezed my shoulder, silently letting me know that he would take care of everything.

"Apparently she didn't tell you this." Douglas said with a shrug.

"What exactly was she supposed to have told me?"

"About us and our relationship."

"What relat..." I started but Cody stopped me.

"There is no relationship, Doug. What are you trying to get at here?" Cody said.

"Is that what she told you?" Douglas shook his head. "I understand she probably wanted to protect you at first." He sighed like it was going to be hard to spew the shit that was about to come out of his mouth. "Look, the thing is, man, you're gone a lot and the nights get lonely for Georgia. She needs someone to warm her bed and her body when you wouldn't be there for her. She called someone who could give her exactly what she needed...me." Cody just laughed in his face.

"Do you really expect me to believe that shit? Georgia would no sooner call you for sex then she would just to talk to you. She can't stand you."

"Really? Well, let me ask you something. Where were you in late August? Did you spend more than 2 or 3 days at home those last two weeks? I bet you didn't. And I bet you used a rubber every time the two of you had sex, didn't you? You never once thought to question just how in the hell did Georgia get pregnant if I wrapped it every time?" Cody let go of me and took a step away. "We both know that baby isn't yours. And with the way she whores herself around, that baby probably isn't mine either." Just as the last word tumbled out of Douglas's mouth, his head snapped back and he stumbled backwards, tripping and falling to the floor. I looked at Cody. His hand was still fisted at his side. Cody had just knocked the shit out of Dougie.

"The last two weeks of August, I was out with an injury and was at home every single day." Cody turned to look at me. "Did you sleep with him, sweetness?" He asked, pointing at Douglas. I shook my head no. "I didn't think so. Did you sleep with anyone else while we've been married or before when we were dating?" I shook my head again.

"No, Cody. I wouldn't do that to you, ever." I told him as the tears started to creep down my cheeks. He smiled softly and cupped the side of my throat.

"I know you didn't and wouldn't, Georgia." He stroked my jawline with the pad of his thumb. "It's okay, sweetness." He whispered. I nodded and he leaned in and kissed my forehead. Then he turned to face Douglas still sprawled out in the floor.

"I know all about you, Dougie. I know how you tried to feel Georgia up in her mother's living room and she had to slap you to keep you away. I know how you came here when you KNEW I wouldn't be here just to scare the shit out of her."

Douglas started to protest to protest but Cody was having none of it. "Shut your damn mouth!" I heard Douglas's teeth snap together as he did exactly what Cody said. "What did you think was going to happen when you came here today? Did you think you were going to come in here and feed me your bullshit lies and I would just believe you?" Cody walked towards Douglas and towered over him. "You're a fuckin fool."

He reached down and grabbed Douglas's shirt. "You tried to rape my pregnant wife. I would NEVER believe a damn word you said." Cody he growled and yanked him out of the floor. "You better thank your lucky stars that Georgia is standing behind me right now or I wouldn't be letting you walk out of here like I'm going to." Cody jerked Douglas close and got in his face. "Because if she wasn't, I'd be beating the hell out of you like you deserve." He shoved him away towards the door. "Now get the fuck out of our house before I let Georgia call the police like she promised you she would." Cody opened the door and grabbed Douglas's shoulder as he walked by. "If I see or hear about you being around here or near my family again, I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life and the police will be the least of your worries. Do we have an understanding, Douglas?"

"Yeah."

"I thought we would. Now," he shoved Douglas out the door and down our couple front steps, "get the hell out of here." Dougie nearly ran to his car. I'm sure that he must have left half of his tires on the road in front of our house as he spun them on his way out.

I walked over to Cody and wrapped my arms around him. I pressed my cheek to his chest as he stroked my hair and rubbed my back.

"Do you think he'll stay away?" I asked softly.

"It would definitely be in his best interest to stay as far away from you as he possibly can." He hesitated for a moment in rubbing my back. "You're okay, right? You and Jordan?" I had to smile at his worry.

"Yes, baby. We're okay. A little tired but okay." I leaned back to look at him. "Let's go take a nap. Then we can share out leftovers for dinner." Cody smiled and took my hand.

"So I'll be watching you eat the leftovers while I eat a sandwich?" I laughed and nodded.

"Yes, probably so."

* * *

I had been so excited for Monday to come but when it actually rolled around, I wasn't feeling it at all. I was up early in the morning from uncomfortable cramps in my lower back and belly. I wasn't worried cause I had felt them before and Dr. Palmer told me they were just early, practice contractions. My body was just practicing for real labor. I knew if I got up and moved around they would fade and I'd feel better.

I spent the morning repacking my 'hospital' bag that we were going to keep in the car while I let Cody sleep. When Cody got up, we ate, well I picked, breakfast in our kitchen.

"You're not hungry, sweetness?" Cody asked, nodding towards my picked apart and barely eaten omelet.

"No, not really." I didn't bother telling Cody about the cramps. They would fade and go away. Why bother him or worry him about them? Cody reached over and put the back of his hand on my forehead. "What are you doing?" I said, laughing as he sat back.

"Seeing if you had a fever. You have to be sick if you're not hungry." He said with a grin. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Shut up."

* * *

When Cody and I got to the arena a few hours later, I was surprised by Annie, Becky, Ava and a few of the other divas that I had become friends with, with a little baby shower. The party wasn't exclusive to just us girls, Cody, along with the other guys got to stay too. Becky had gotten a cake made with 'Welcome Jordan' written on it. It was so cute with little boy things all over it.

Cody sat beside me as I opened the amazing gifts that we were given, all adorable, but after an hour of sitting in that one spot, I needed to get up and walk around. Cody decided that we would take a tour of the arena. Annie shooed us away telling us to take our walk and she would pack up all of Jordan's goodies.

Cody led me out of the door with a hand on my lower back.

"Were you surprised, sweetness?" I smiled up at him.

"I was. It was so sweet of them." We had gotten maybe 20 or 25 feet away from the door to the room of the party when we were stopped.

"Hi, Cody." I looked up to see Lexis Conroy standing right in front of us.

"Hey, Lex. How are you?" He asked politely. She smiled at him and stepped up close to him like I wasn't even standing there beside him.

"I'm better now."

"Okay. That's good. See you aro..." He started to step away but she moved in front of him with a hand on his chest.

"You were coming to see me, weren't you?" Cody sighed.

"To be honest, Lexis, we were just taking a walk." Cody said as nice as possible as he gently plucked her hand off his chest. She took that as a sign that he want to hold her hand.

"Where were you earlier?" She asked with that fake ass smile still plastered on. Cody worked his hand out of hers.

"At a little party for..."

"A party? You had a party and didn't invite me?" She said, with what she and most guys thought was a sexy little pout. Cody took a small step away from her towards me.

"Actually, the party was for Georgia and everyone that wanted to come could. You know that, Lexis."

"But I wanted to see just you, Cody." He looked confused and surprised by that.

"Why?" When she smiled up at him with that look on her face, it clicked. I should have figured it out sooner.

"Oh my God. It was you." I said. Lexis sighed and looked at me like I was bothering her.

"What was me?"

"It was all you. The phone calls with no one there. The story from the party. The call that morning when you told me Cody was leaving me." I shook my head. "Even JaydeRox was you, wasn't it?" Lexis rolled her eyes.

"So what?" She said, her words dripping with attitude.

"Wait, wait!" Cody said. "That was you? You did all of that to Georgia? To both of us?"

"Yes, Cody." She turned back to him. Lexis put her hands back on his chest. "But I did it for us."

"Us? What us, Lexis? There's no us." Cody said. I could hear and see his confusion.

"Please. Don't be like that, Cody. We don't need this." I laughed under breath and shook my head at her. "What's that smart ass laugh for, bitch?" She said to me, suddenly extremely angry.

"I'm pretty sure he just said that there was no you and him." I told her, removing Lexis's hands from Cody's chest. I had never been this aggressive before. I chalked it up to the hormones but I was crazy possessive of Cody at the moment. This bitch had no right to touch him.

"Stop being so naive. You have to know he fucks around on you when he's on the road. All the guys do it. All of them. Though, I completely understand in Cody's case. Why would he want to come home to your bloated ass when he could have my perfect body?!" She yelled at me. Her public tantrum was making people migrate out of the party. We now had an audience. Just like I suspected she wanted.

"What...none of that shit is true and you know it!" Cody yelled. I took his hand, ready to walk away.

"It's okay, Cody. Let's just go." I turned back to her. "Jealousy does not become you, Ms. Conroy. Green is not your color." I said. I squeezed Cody's hand and started to step away. Lexis stopped us and slapped our hands apart and got in my face.

"He's mine, bitch! He's gonna be mine! You don't deserve him! You'll never be good enough for him!"

"Come on, Lexis. Back off!" Cody tried to get in between us and get her away from me. He couldn't seem to move her without manhandling her he didn't want to do.

"Apparently, he thinks I am. I'm sorry, Lexis. But he's with who he wants." I told her. I never saw her hand move but I sure felt it connect with my face. If Annie and Becky hasn't been right behind me, I would have fallen to the floor.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Lexis?!" Cody would have gone after her if one of the divas, Beth I believe, hadn't picked Lexis up and physically held her as she tried to get at me again. I rubbed the side of my stinging face. I watched as John Cena rushed up and tried to calm Cody down while he yelled at a still screaming Lexis.

"You okay, Georgia?" Becky asked me.

"Yeah, I think..." I stopped mid-sentence as pain speared through my back and lower belly. I sucked in a scared breath as I felt a weird pop. That was when I felt the wetness spread down the inside of my thighs and trickle down my legs. I looked down to see a small puddle forming around my feet. "Oh God."

"What's wrong, Georgia?" Annie asked. She looked down in the direction I was looking. "Oh...is that what I think it is?" I looked at her with terrified tears in my eyes. I nodded. I squeezed her hand tight. "Oh shit."

"It's too early." She gave me a reassuring smile.

"It's gonna be okay, peaches." She stroked the back of my hair as I cupped my belly, trying to rub the pain away even though I knew in my head that it wouldn't end until I was holding my baby boy in my arms. That thought was the only thing that was keeping me from REALLY freaking out. "Can you stay with her, Beck?" Annie asked.

"Yeah. I'm right here."

"I'm grabbing my phone to call 911." Annie told me before squeezing my hand.

"Take my phone and call Michelle and Momma." She gave me that smile again.

"Okay, Georgie. I'll be right back." I nodded as she ran off. I looked up in front of me to see Cody talking to John and Ted. They were blocking Lexis's view of him. Cody seemed to be calming down. Hopefully he stayed that way. I reached out and grabbed the back of Cody's shirt. I intended to tug gently but just as I started to tug, another contraction hit me. I yanked hard on his shirt as I doubled over.

"Cody!" Becky yelled as she held on to me, rubbing my back. I lost my hold on his shirt when he turned around.

"Wha...Georgia?" He was in front of me in an instant. "Georgie, sweetness, what's wrong?" He looked down as he realized he was standing in my small puddle. "Georgia?" I smiled as best I could.

"It's time, Code. I think Jordan wants to make his appearance." I glanced down at my feet and then back up to his face. "My water just broke."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	12. Chapter 12

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, Kinley Orton, Livin on the EDGE AND foldintothenight. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ Here is chapter 10. Enjoy!**

I breathed my way through another contraction as I anxiously waited for Dr. Palmer. I had straight out refused to let another doctor examine me. I had let them put me on monitors but that was about it. Surprisingly, they were very nice about it, one saying that it was understandable with me being a first timer and early.

Cody stroked the back of my hand as the contraction passed and I relaxed back into my pillows as much as I could at a time like this. I looked at him, his face a mask of concern while he watched me struggle with the pain. I could tell he was just as worried as I was.

"Did she say how long until she got here?" I asked him about Dr. Palmer.

"No she didn't. At first she made it sound like a false alarm until I told her your water broke then she said she'd be here as soon as she could." I felt myself tearing up in fear.

"I'm right, aren't I? It's way too early for me to be in labor." Cody shook his head, kissing the back of my hand. He was trying to keep me calm, knowing the stress, especially at this moment was not good for either me or Jordan.

"It's gonna be okay, sweetness." He told me. The tears started to roll down my cheeks.

"Jordan will be okay, won't he?" Cody smiled softly, wiping the tears from my face.

"Dr. Palmer is an amazing doctor and a good friend. She's going to do everything she can to make sure you and Jordan are perfectly fine." I nodded, leaning my face against his hand.

I was on the tail end of another contraction when Dr. Palmer walked into the room. She gave me a pleasant smile but I could see the tiny bit of worry on the edge of it. That didn't do a thing t0 calm me down in the slightest.

"So it seems someone wants to come play a little early, huh?"

"It seems so." I said. She glanced at my chart, making notes. "Jordan's gonna be okay, right?" Dr. Palmer looked back up at me.

"Let's do an exam and we'll see where we stand, okay?" I nodded. She reached out and squeezed my hand. "Jordan's going to be fine. I'm going to personally make sure that the two of you have the best care possible while you're here." I finally smiled back at her, feeling a little better. Dr. Palmer walked to the small sink to wash her hands. Cody lifted the hand he was holding to his lips.

"I told you she's going to look after you, sweetness." He said softly.

Dr. Palmer told Cody he had the option to step outside while she did my exam, but I didn't give him that choice. I refused to let go of his hand. Once he felt me squeeze his fingers, he just nodded. I didn't even have to ask. He just knew.

"I'll stay right here with Georgia, if that's okay with you." Cody said to her. She smiled to herself.

"That's what I thought you'd say."

The exam was over surprisingly quick. I was almost 3 cm dilated which she said was just about what she expected.

"You have a ways to go yet, Georgia. Unfortunately, I can't give you anything for the pain until you've dilated to at least 7 to 8 cm. We'll check every hour to see where things are." Dr. Palmer patted Cody's shoulder. "Settle in for the long haul, sweetheart." She just smiled back.

"I'm pretty settled in, Doc." She nodded her approval. She rubbed my ankle softly as she started for the door.

"Relax as much as you can. Don't try and fight the contractions, just let them go and breathes through them. Save as much of your energy as you can. You'll need it later." With that, she left Cody and I alone. Cody reached up and stroked my cheek, helping calm me down even more.

"Just think, sweetness, before you know it, we'll be holding Jordan and this will all be over." I put my hand over his.

"So you're saying all this pain will be worth it?" I asked with a strained smile. He laughed softly.

"Once you see his little face, I bet you won't even remember the pain."

* * *

We had read in one of our books that walking sometimes would help speed up labor, so Cody was helping me take a tour of the room. We determined that I needed all the extra help I could get. It had been two hours since my first exam and with this last one, I had finally jumped up to being 4 cm. Dr. Palmer was right. This was going to take a while.

Cody was helping me back into bed after walking through three or four contractions when Dr. Palmer came back in for the next exam.

"How's it going?" She asked, meaning how was I holding up? Before I could answer, Cody spoke up.

"She's doing amazing. I know she's in pain but she hasn't complained once. She's been breathing through them just like you said." I couldn't help but smile at the love and pride I could hear his voice and see on his face. I took his hand.

"That's because I have the best coach and husband in the world." I told him. He returned my smile and kissed my temple.

"You are a great coach, Cody." Dr. Palmer told him. "Most daddies-to-be, especially first timers, are freaking out and stressing. You're nice and calm." Cody laughed.

"Oh, I'm freaking out all right but I'm keeping it to myself. No need to bother Georgia with that. She's got enough to worry about without adding me to it." Dr. Palmer patted his arm.

"And that's what makes you a great coach, dear."

* * *

Dr. Palmer proceeded with the exam only to reveal that I hadn't dilated anymore. She was taking off her gloves and pulling down the sheet to cover me when the nurse, Dawn I think the name was, came in to speak to her.

"They're all demanding to come in here. They won't listen to me." She said in a loud whisper. I looked up at Cody. He shook his head and shrugged, not knowing what was going on either. "I told them about ten times that only husbands or significant others are allowed back here with the mothers." She lowered her voice more but we could still hear. "Mr. Cooper says he'll buy the whole wing if he has to." Of course it would be our family starting something in the waiting room. Dr. Palmer turned to me.

"Are you feeling up to a few visitors?" I sighed and nodded.

"Sure. I really want to see my mom." Cody lightly squeezed my hand, agreeing with me. The two of them have become good friends over the last few months. I paused for second when what the nurse said hit me. "Wait," Dr. Palmer and the nurse turned back around, "did you say Mr. Cooper was out there?" I asked.

"Yes, ma'am." The nurse said. "He seems really worry about you."

"I'll show them in but only if you're up for it. And they can only stay for a little while." Dr. Palmer said. I told her that it was okay and to go ahead. I turned to Cody as soon as they close the door behind them.

"How did he find out? Why is he here?" I asked. Cody slipped on his now familiar calming smile. He softly stroked the hair away from my face.

"Maybe your mom thought it was close enough that it wouldn't be a big deal anymore. It's just a matter of time now, right?" I sighed.

"Right. Maybe it will all be okay." Boy, how I would come to eat those words.

* * *

Cody and I looked towards the door at the soft knock pushed it open. I couldn't stop my smile when my mom popped her head in the door.

"Hi, momma." I said, waving her into the room. Michelle pushed open the door and followed my mom into the room with my father and Dusty following close behind. Mom made her way right to my side, hugging me tightly. Michelle did the same for Cody. As soon as she let him go, mom leaned across the bed to hug Cody as well and Michelle hugged me. I noticed that our fathers weren't joining in the celebration. They were standing at the foot of my bed on opposite sides. They both looked beyond pissed. Mom and Michelle ignored them. They kept running off questions about how I was feeling, how dilated I was, how Cody was holding up. I tugged on mom's hand to get her attention.

"I can't believe you were able to keep this from daddy for so long." I said to her and what I thought was a quiet voice.

"You didn't keep anything from me. I've known about this baby for months." Before I could show my shock, mom spoke up, angry as hell.

"What the hell do you mean you knew about the baby for months? You knew and you didn't tell me?" Dad just shrugged.

"You've known for a couple months and didn't bother to tell me."

"Are you kidding me, Harrison? I only found out about the baby by accident. I happened to run into Georgia and Cody while surprising Lily for lunch. True, they didn't tell me that they didn't because they thought that I believed all the crap that you said about Cody. I missed out on most of our daughter's pregnancy. It's our grandchild, Harrison. And no matter what you think or how you feel about it, they are happy, married and Cody is this baby's father." Dad made a face of disgust.

"Don't remind me that, that_ boy_ is a temporary part of the family, Stella._"_

"Harrison, this is not the time or place for this." Mom said.

"That's true, it isn't." Dusty said, adding his two cents to the conversation. "We still don't know if that baby really is Cody's. Shouldn't we find that out first?" Dad turned on him.

"What did I tell you about saying that shit about my daughter, Runnels?" Dusty just rolled his eyes. "Besides, you're just pissed that your plan backfired. It pushed them closer together instead." That little tidbit of information got everyone's attention.

"Whoa, what plan?" Cody asked. They ignored him.

"Don't you blame that all on me just cause that rich bastard you picked couldn't hold up his end of the bargain!" Dusty said. Dad braced his hands on the side of my bed to lean towards him.

"Oh yeah, that skanky little slut you picked did her job really well, didn't she?" I think it dawned on everyone in the room at the same time what the two of them were saying. I would have joined in the yelling that our mothers started if another contraction hadn't hit me. No one noticed but Cody. He held my hand as I did my rhythmic breathing, trying to ride it out. As soon as it faded, Cody turned on them.

"You tried to set us up to fail, didn't you? The moment you found out Georgia was pregnant, you two assholes tried to tear us apart. You tried to force people…" Cody was so angry he had to stop in the middle of his sentence and let go of my hand for a second to regain some of his calm. I had never seen him this angry before. Finally, he was able to take my hand again. "How much did you pay Lexis and Douglas to try and destroy our marriage?" He asked, stroking my hand with his thumb.

"Not enough apparently." Dad said quietly.

"Is that true, Dusty? Did you pay someone to try and breakup your son's marriage?" Michelle asked. Dusty held up his hand as if toward off his wife's anger.

"I'm not the only one." He nodded his head towards dad. "Cooper there put in a good chunk of change too." I sucked back a sob as he confirmed what happened.

"How could you, Harrison? That bastard, Douglas Wellington scared the hell out of Georgia. I've never seen her that scared in my life." Mom scolded.

"Damn it. He wasn't supposed to scare her. He was supposed to seduce her and then rub it in his face." Again, before I could respond myself, someone spoke up for me. Cody this time.

"So now you think Georgia, your own daughter, is a common whore that will just fuck anyone that talks to her?" Cody glared at him. "That son of a bitch tried to fuckin' rape her. But I guess that would've been okay though, right?" Then he turned on Dusty. "I used to think of Lexis as a girl that always went after what she wanted but did it the right way. I'm pretty sure she's never been like this. What did you do to her?" Dusty just laughed.

"Son, don't play dumb with me. You had to know that girl's had a thing for you for years. I just fed her a lot of encouragement and a little money. The rest was all her." He nodded towards me. "I say she got what she deserved." The moment the words were out of his mouth, the yelling exploded again. Even Cody joined in this time. He didn't stop until I squeezed his hand, alerting him to the next contraction which surprised me by coming a lot faster than I was expecting. Cody turned away from them to give me all of his attention.

"Breathe, sweetness." Cody said as soft as he could. This contraction seemed to be never-ending. The sudden blaring of an alarm on one of the machines attached to me caused everyone to finally shut up. Dr. Palmer ran into the room.

"Out! Everyone out! Right now!" She shouted. They all hesitated. "Get out before I call security!" Reluctantly they filed out of the room. Two nurses rushed in at the same time. Dr. Palmer started putting on gloves as one of the nurses read the readouts on the machine out loud to her. I kept squeezing Cody's and while the alarm loudly blared. Dr. Palmer just nodded at the numbers and headed towards my feet. She tossed back the sheet. "Keep breathing for me, Georgia." She said, doing a quick exam. She turned to the nurse standing beside her. "We're going to have to take him. Prep room 3." She turned towards the other nurse. "Rachel, get the father suited up, please." Rachel hurried out of the room. Dr. Palmer whipped off her gloves.

"Okay, what the hell is happening? What's wrong?" Cody asked. He was trying to hide it for my benefit but I could still hear the fear in his voice.

"Everything's going to be fine, you two. The alarm tipped us off that Georgia's blood pressure is up and the readouts were telling us that the baby's heart rate is elevated. I won't lie to you. His heart rate is at an extremely high level. He's in distress."

"What does that mean, Lily?" I asked, my voice shaking in fear that I couldn't conceal. She rubbed my ankle as Rachel rushed back into the room with an arm full of scrubs and shove them at Cody.

"It means that I'm going to take you into the room down the hall and as soon as Cody gets those scrubs on, he's going to join you. Before we go, Julie is going to give you that epidural we talked about." Dr. Palmer and the nurse, Julie helped me set up on the edge of the bed facing Cody, who was working at getting on the scrubs over his close. "Once we get in that room we're gonna prep you quickly and once you're fully numb, which shouldn't take too long, I'm going to go in and take your little boy." She smiled at me as they help me lay back down. "In about a half an hour, you two will be holding your son." She looked over her shoulder at Cody who was pulling on the hat they gave him. "You two ready?" He scrambled back to my side, taking my hand. I squeezed tightly and nodded.

"Let's go."

* * *

Dr. Palmer was right about everything being quick. Within 15 minutes, they had me prepped with a sheet up just below my breasts, blocking me and Cody off from Dr. Palmer and her team of nurses. Cody held my hand, stroking the hair from my face.

"All right, Georgia, you should just feel some pressure but it shouldn't hurt. If you feel anything but pressure you let me know." She proceeded to tell us step by step of what she was doing. "Cody, if you want to stand up you can see me pull him out."

"Do it, baby. But don't let me go." I said to him. He grinned, kissed my forehead and stood up. I knew the moment our son came into the world by the expression on Cody's face.

"Oh, wow." He said quietly in awe.

"Congratulations. You have your boy." Dr. Palmer said. Just beyond the edge of the sheet, I could see two or three nurses huddled around something. Cody sat back down. He kissed me.

"You did amazing, Georgie." He kissed me again. "You should see him, sweetness. He's so tiny." It was then that I noticed how quiet, minus the machines I was still attached to beeping softly, it was in the room. It wasn't supposed to be this quiet.

"Is he okay, Cody? Is Jordan okay?" Cody smiled at me, still stroking the hair away from my face.

"Of course he's okay. Why wouldn't he be?"

"He's not crying. He should be crying. Why is he so quiet?" I asked. I was panicking, the beeping on the machines started to get quicker. There had to be something wrong for him to be so quiet. I could feel the tears welling up. Cody stood up for a moment then sat back down.

"They're cleaning them up. I can see his little arms and legs moving." He told me, reassuring me a little.

"But he's not…" I was cut short when at last Jordan's cries filled the room. The tears I had been fighting spilled over in relief and happiness.

"See?" Cody said with a smile and tears of his own threatening in his eyes. "He's okay. I told you he was okay." He wiped at the tears on my cheek. I finally smiled at him, lifting my head to kiss him. "I love you, Georgia." Earning himself another kiss.

"I love you too, Cody." He smiled and kept stroking my hair softly as we listened to our son's cries. I could still feel pressure every once in a while. Dr. Palmer must've still been doing something. Probably, sewing me back up.

I smiled up at Cody with heavy eyes. I was suddenly super tired and kind of cold. I could just make out Cody's face turn concerned.

"You okay, sweetness?" I felt kind of like I was slipping away from him. I really wanted to answer but I was so tired. "Georgia?"

"Sleepy." I mumbled.

"I'm sure you are. You've been through a lot today." Something was wrong with me. I felt so heavy. Maybe if I close my eyes. But first…

"I love you, Cody. You and Jordan."

"We love you too, Georgie." Suddenly, a nurse's panicked voice broke through Jordan's cries.

"Dr. Palmer, we have blood." Cody's head popped up at that. Lily said something vile and I felt pressure again. The urge to drop into the void of unconsciousness was quickly starting to take over.

"Cody?" I said his name, bringing his attention back to me. I smiled, looking into the blue eyes I loved so much. Cody jumped as alarms started blaring around us. The last thing I saw was Cody saying my name as my eyelids closed their own volition, dropping me into that quiet black void.

* * *

"Georgia?!" Cody yelled her name again as the hand he'd been holding went limp in his.

"She's crashing!" One of the nurses yelled over the horrific alarms. It clicked what was happening the moment he heard those words. Georgia was dying right in front of his eyes. "No! Georgia wake up!" Cody leaned in, dropping kisses all over her face. "Please, Georgie!" He whispered. "Please wake up, sweetness. I need you. Jordan needs you. Please."

"Someone get the baby to the nursery and call security to get him out of here." Dr. Palmer called out. She knew that Cody wouldn't leave Georgia's side without a fight and she didn't have the time to talk him into going. The young mother, that she had known since her birth, had actually been the doctor that delivered her, was bleeding to death moments after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy that she would more than likely consider just like her own grandchild. Something had ruptured near the incision site and couldn't be seen until she had nearly closed Georgia up. Lily would fight hard for any mother in this situation but this was personal. Security showed up almost instantly.

"Sir, we need you to come with us." One of the guys said, laying a hand on Cody's shoulder. He shrugged them off violently. The moment he was free he went back to cradling Georgia's face in his hands.

"I'm not leaving her." He more or less growled at them.

"I can't help her if you don't leave, Cody." Dr. Palmer yelled at him. Security took his momentary lapse in attention to grab him. It took everything both of the big men had to drag Cody out of the room. He was fighting them every inch of the way.

"Georgia! Let me go! I have to stay with her!" He yelled as they shoved him out into the hall. The electronically locking doors click shut in his face. He pounded on the doors with his fists, trying to get back to her. "Georgia!" He looked around frantically trying to find something he could use to pry or bust open the door with. Instead of a weapon, he found a nurse. Cody grabbed her arm when he recognized her as one of the nurses that have been taking care of Georgia earlier.

"Sir?" She said in surprise.

"Please. You have to get me back in there. Georgia's in there alone. I have to get back to her. I need to be in there with her. Please." She smiled at him sadly.

"I'm sorry, but you know I can't let you back in there." Reality crashed down around Cody as he realized that he could really lose her. His beautiful Georgia. His love, his heart, his other half. His legs buckled, dropping him to his knees right there in the middle of the hall. He couldn't breathe.

"I'm so sorry." The nurse said, kneeling down beside him. "Maybe you should go sit with your family in the waiting room, Mr. Runnels. I'm sure that they'd like to see you." Suddenly, a fury like Cody had never felt before came over him. He knew who was to blame. He knew_ exactly_ who was to blame for this. Cody stood and made his way towards the waiting room, ripping off scrubs as he went. By the time he shoved open the door to the waiting room, all he had on were the bright yellow pants. The rest of the sunny, paper thin scrubs were wadded up in a ball being held tightly in his fist. He stormed across the room to where his and her parents were sitting. Michelle and Stella stood up the moment they saw him. So did their fathers.

"Cody, sweetheart, what…" Michelle started but stop short when Cody dropped the ball up scrubs at her feet. He walked another five or six steps, stopping right in front of Harrison.

"My daughter, is she…" Cody's right hook came out of nowhere, catching Harrison right in the jaw. The force of it knocked Harrison back into his seat.

"It's your fault!" Cody screamed at him. "She's in there dying because of the shit you pulled!"

"Dying? What do you mean dying, Cody?" Stella asked, suddenly terrified. She reached out to Michelle who instantly comforted her. Cody turned to face her.

"Right after they took Jordan, the alarms started going off and Georgia blacked out. I thought I heard a nurse say something about blood. They called security to force me out of the room. They made me leave her." He dropped his head, disappointed in himself that he didn't fight them harder. He couldn't look at Stella or his mother's face as they started to cry. Cody was so lost in his own anguish, he was oblivious to the fact that the room was filled with his and Georgia's friends and the rest of their family.

"How's the baby?" Dusty spoke up. Cody's fury returned in a rush. He took two hurried steps towards Dusty before he was pulled up short by two sets of heavily muscled arms holding him back. Randy and Dustin struggled to hold on to an angry, fighting Cody.

"How dare you? How dare you even pretend to care? It's your fault too! If you hadn't sent Lexis after us, Georgia wouldn't be here now!" Annie decided to brave the wrath of Cody and stepped up in front of him.

"Cody?" She put her hands on either side of his cheeks bringing his attention to her. "Cody, look at me." His eyes snapped towards hers. "Is Jordan okay?" He took a few seconds to answer.

"I think so. We heard him crying." He took a deep breath. "I heard them say to get him to the nursery."

"So he's in the nursery now?" She asked. Cody nodded. Annie nodded to them and Dustin and Randy let Cody go. She let go of Cody's face, taking his hand instead. "Have you held him yet?"

"No. Neither of us got the chance." The look on Cody's face completely broke Annie's heart.

"Why don't you and I walked down to the nursery so you can hold your son?" Cody nodded.

"Yeah. I want to see him." Annie led him away, rubbing his back.

"Come on. Let's go see Jordan."

* * *

Cody gently knocked on the door to the nursery. A pretty, young nurse with a name tag saying her name was Holly answered the door.

"Can I help you?"

"I want to hold my son." Cody told her. Annie stepped up and helped Cody out. She explained what was going on, knowing he couldn't, even though it was killing her too. She knew how Cody was feeling. She couldn't imagine her life without Georgia either. After a little verification, Holly turned to a speaker on the wall.

"Sabrina, can you bring over baby Runnels? The father is here." She showed Cody to a small quiet room with a rocker inside. She handed him another scrub top to put on. She flipped through a chart and told Cody about his son as Annie stood off to the side, knowing Cody wouldn't be able to retain any of the information. Holly told Cody that his son weighted in at just about 5 pounds exactly. All of his test had come back clear. The only thing they have left to test with his ability to eat. "We have a bottle with formula if you'd like…"

"No." Cody cut her off. "Georgia and I talked about it. She wants to breast-feed him." Holly smiled sweetly and understandingly at him.

"And that's perfectly fine. She'll still be able to breast-feed him when she's able. This bottle," she held up the small 3 ounce bottle, "is just to make sure your son is actually able to eat."

"Jordan." Cody said quietly.

"I'm sorry?" Holly asked.

"My boy's name is Jordan." Again she smiled.

"And speaking of, here's Jordan now." The nurse, Sabrina pushed the small cradle into the doorway. Annie glanced in as it went by, her eyes tearing up instantly at the sight of her tiny little nephew. The moment Holly went to scoop him up, he whimpered and started to cry. She rocked him gently and turned to Cody. "Are you ready, Mr. Runnels?" Cody took a deep breath and nodded. She leaned in close and laid Jordan in his arms. Joy and sorrow fought over position in his heart. He was overjoyed to be holding their baby boy in his arms. At the same time, he couldn't help but think that Georgia should have been the one to hold him first. Without Cody noticing, Annie snapped a few pictures of Jordan and of Cody holding Jordan.

Holly walked Cody through trying to feed Jordan. They were worried that he hadn't quite developed his sucking reflex. If he didn't, he wouldn't be able to eat. She told him to softly rubbed the tip of the bottle against Jordan's mouth. When he opened up, he gently put it in his mouth just like Holly showed him. He held his breath for just a second until Jordan latched on and began to eat with a greedy gusto. A collective sigh of relief went through the room. Jordan was good to go. Holly laid a hand on Cody's shoulder.

"Let him eat as much as he wants. He'll pull back when he's done." Cody nodded, not looking away from Jordan. "We're going to leave you two alone. Just press this button by the door if you need us, Mr. Runnels." Cody nodded again as they shut the door behind themselves. A few minutes later, Jordan seemed to stop eating and had fallen back asleep. Cody set the bottle on the table beside him. He very gently started to move the rocking chair he was sitting in.

"I can't believe how tiny you are, buddy." He said in a soft voice. He ran the back of his finger across Jordan's cheek. He smiled sadly as tears filled his eyes. "Mommy's going to be so happy to hold you when she wakes up." Cody's heart seized up in his chest at the thought that he might possibly be lying to his newborn son. He didn't even bother to stop the tears that fell. He shook his head, trying hard to banish the heartbreaking thoughts. "She is going to wake up, Jordan. Mommy loves us. She doesn't want to leave us. She doesn't want to go." Cody closed his eyes and held Jordan just a bit tighter. "Please God. Please don't take her from us. Please." He whispered, looking back down at his and Georgia's son sleeping in his arms.

* * *

Cody was still rocking Jordan in the small room off of the nursery when Dr. Palmer found him a half an hour later. She knocks softly and pushed open the door. Cody looked up and his heart shattered in a million pieces when he saw her standing there. He knew. He just knew his Georgie was gone. He nodded and carefully laid Jordan back into the small cradle. He was going to be strong for his son. Jordan was going to need him. Hell, they were going to need each other. Especially now.

"How long before I can take Jordan home?" Cody asked in a broken voice. Lily could tell he was seriously fighting his emotions.

"A couple of days. Two or three at the most."

"I'm staying right here with him. I'm not leaving him." She nodded in agreement.

"That's fine but I think you'll both be more comfortable in the private family room I have for you all. There's a more permanent crib in there. Plus, there is a small separate bed for you so you won't disturb anyone while they're sleeping. You will be pretty busy for at least a week or so. She's going to need her sleep so she can recover fully." Cody started to nod his understatement but instead turned to her confused. He wasn't completely sure he had just heard her correctly.

"She? Georgia? Do you mean…" She could see the blazing look of hope in his eyes. She smiled. Dr. Palmer laid a hand on Cody's arm.

"Georgia's going to be fine. Actually, she should be awake soon." Cody's knees nearly buckled in the overwhelming sense of relief and happiness washing over him. If he hadn't been holding on to the table and the rocking chair, he would have more than likely collapsed to the floor. He threw his arms around Dr. Palmer, crushing her against him.

"Thank you. Thank you for giving me Georgia back, Lily." She just hugged him back.

"Come on." She said, stepping back. "Let me get you to your room. I know she's going to want her boys to be the first thing she sees when she wakes up.

* * *

I was aware of people talking near me. I wanted to see them and even talk to them but my eyelids were just so heavy. I was on the verge of freaking out until I heard Cody's voice. I instantly felt safe. I could hear Cody talking to me but I couldn't really understand the words. But I didn't mind. I let the sound of his voice lull me back to sleep.

* * *

I woke up sometime later to the sound of a baby's crying. This time I had no problem opening my eyes. I could just make out Cody tossing off a blanket and crawling out of a small cot right beside my bed. He rushed over to the crib just at the foot of our beds. I realized in that moment it was my baby boy crying.

"Shh, buddy." Cody said softly, lifting Jordan out of the crib. He cuddled Jordan close to his chest and rocked him, walking with him. I felt myself tearing up as I watched Cody pace back and forth past the moonlit windows. My heart swelled with the love I felt for my two boys. "Shh, Jord. It's okay, buddy. You don't want to wake up mommy do you?" I took that as the perfect cue.

"It's too late for that." I said. I could see Cody smile as he turned around to face me. I couldn't help but smile back. "Do you think maybe I could give it a try?" He walked over towards me.

"You think you're ready for that?" Cody asked, stopping beside me. I grinned up at him.

"I've been waiting for this moment since we found out about him. I'm so ready." I fumbled with the controls on the bed to help me sit up. Cody gave me the two pillows from his temporary bed to lay in my lap. He knew I was still a little weak and probably wouldn't be able to hold up Jordan that long.

"Ready?" He asked over Jordan's cries. Suddenly, I got extremely nervous. What if I couldn't calm him down?

"Wait. What if he doesn't like me?" Cody just smiled.

"You're his mommy. He already loves you." Before I could talk myself into more nervousness, Cody leaned in and laid Jordan in my arms.

I wish I had words to describe the feelings that came over me the moment I looked down at my little boy. The tears couldn't be held back anymore. They rolled freely down my cheeks. I rocked him gently and cooed to him. To my surprise, the rocking and the sound of my voice called him down and he drifted back off to sleep.

"He's so tiny." I beamed at Cody as he sat beside me in the bed, facing me so he could watch me holding Jordan. "I think Blue is bigger than he is." Cody laughed softly as he reached out to brush away the tears from my face.

"That lazy mutt is way bigger than Jordan." I gave him the same look I always gave him when he talked bad about my Blue.

"Please. You love Blue. I just think you're upset that he sleeps in your spot when you're not home." I said with a grin. Cody just shook his head as I looked back at Jordan. "Do you think my mom and Michelle are still here? I'd like to see them and I bet they'd love to see Jordan. I know they're dying to hold him."

"I'm sure they are. Them and Annie and Becky and Ava. All of them. They said they were staying until you sent them home. But…our dads are gone." That surprised me a little. Both that all of my friends and family were still here and that our fathers had left.

"They are? They didn't want to stay and try and ruin something else?"

"Well, I...kinda punched your dad in the face." I looked at him confused.

"You did? Why?" He stroked my cheek softly before tucking some hair behind my ear.

"When they shoved me out of the room, away from you, I broke down or nearly did until a nurse suggested I go see my family. Then I saw red. I blamed both of them for everything that was happening. Your dad spoke first and he got it first." Cody took a deep breath to steady his anger. "I don't think I've ever been that angry in my life, Georgia. Not only did they put us in the position that I could have lost you but then they thought they had the nerve to pretend to care about you. I went off. Your dad was just the first one I saw."

"Cody..." I started.

"Sweetness, we have more important things to worry about than whether or not our dads approved of every single thing you and I do. Until they decide that you and I are adults and can handle our own lives, they aren't to come around our family. I don't want them near our boy." He gently rubbed the soft fine hair on Jordan's head. "They don't deserve to share in the happiness they tried to destroy." He grinned. "Jordan's just pushing a day old and he's already more mature than the two of them put together." That made me laugh softly.

"I agree, Cody. Until they see what they did was wrong and apologize for hurting us, they're cut off. No more trying to cater to their whims, it's time for them to cater to ours. I can't do it anymore. I won't."

"WE won't." Cody amended. He scooted closer so that he could kiss me. "I'm sure we'll be way too busy with our family to worry about how they feel." I smiled down at Jordan, who was now laying on the pillows but I still had him cuddled close to me.

"And knowing this little monkey, who just couldn't wait to get here, we'll have our hands full." Cody chuckled softly.

"Oh, I can almost guarantee that we will."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. Thanks! =^.^=**


	13. Chapter 13

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53 and Livin on the EDGE. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ Sorry it has taken me so long to post a new chapter. I've been working on a new story and totally forgot. Sorry! Here is chapter 13. Enjoy!**

Jordan and I only had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. Jordan only stayed until Dr. Palmer cleared me to go home.

Again, I was surprised by a little party that Cody set up on the day that we came home. Every one of our friends was there, plus my friends and coworkers from the library and our families, minus our fathers. We were loaded with more gifts and I didn't have to do a thing. Not that I was able to do much anyway.

I was actually down for a couple weeks before I was completely capable of doing stuff by myself again. Cody was on six weeks leave from work so he could be at home with us. And thank God for him. Yes, our moms were there nearly every single day but it was more special having him there taking care of us.

One afternoon, when Jordan was around three and half weeks old, I was walking with him through the downstairs. I had just finished feeding him and was trying to walk him back to sleep. Our tour was stopped by someone at the door. Of course the noise startled Jordan and he started to cry. I met Cody halfway on the way to the front door, both of us wondering who it could be. Neither of our mothers knocked and anyone else would have called to tell us they were coming. I just shrugged at Cody's questioning eyebrow. I stayed back just a little as I watched him open the door.

"What...what are you doing here, Lexis?" I froze. I shifted Jordan in my arms so that I could hold him closer. At least he had stopped crying and was almost back to sleep. I stepped over a bit so I could see Lexis around Cody's back.

"I came to apologize." She said in a small voice. It was nothing like the voice she had before when she attacked me. She held up a stuffed blue hippo and flowers as kind of a barrier between her and Cody. "Can I come in?"

"Are you fucking kidding me, Lexis? You think I'm just going to let you waltz into our house after what you did to us?"

"I just want to explain."

"No. I don't think you deserve…" I stopped him.

"Cody." He turned around and looked at me. "Let her in. She can have her say and then we'll throw her out." For some reason I felt compelled to hear what she had to say.

"Georgia, are you sure?" I nodded and he stepped back letting Lexis inside and shutting the door behind her. She took a few hesitated steps inside and laid the hippo and the flowers down on the armchair. I waved her on.

"Go ahead. Say what you have to say."

"I know I don't deserve the chance…"

"That's right, you don't." I was so angry at what she put my family and friends through. If I wasn't holding Jordan right now… I calmed down as soon as Cody wrapped his arm around us. What I was feeling must have been showing on my face. "The only reason I'm not trying to hurt you right now is because your actions, however evil they may have been, led me to having my son." Cody squeezed my shoulder softly.

"I know. And I deserve that."

"You're damn right you do." Cody said angrily. "What happened to you, Lex? You've never backed down from what you wanted but I never thought you'd stoop so low as to punch a pregnant woman in the face." Lexis looked down at her hands.

"I put my trust in someone who seduced me with the promise of money, a position higher up in the company and the love of someone I really cared for. I was an idiot for ever believing him. The money, he gave me some of it. The position, he was working on it. But the love I wanted, it was never something he could give." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I tried to back out the night of the event in New York. I saw the way you two looked at each other and I knew I had no chance. So, when I came up to you my arrogance was just a mask for my jealousy."

"What stopped you from backing out that night?" Cody asked.

"He threatened me. He said he would make sure I lost everything. My job, money, my house, my friends. He said that he would make sure I never got another wrestling job again. He said he wouldn't stop until I had nothing left." She said in a broken voice. It was at that moment that I realized she was crying. "I told him I would expose what he was trying to do. He just laughed at me. He said to give it a try. That no one would believe a mid-card Diva over him." Lexis finally looked back up at us, not bothering to wipe away her still falling tears. "I'm not completely sure what I did to you that day. I remember going to see him at that restaurant. I told him that I was done, I couldn't do it anymore. That it wasn't working. And then he went off. I'd rather not repeat all the belittling and hurtful things he said to me but he promised me that I'd have a hard time finding a job as a stripper when he was done with me.

"I was so angry and upset when I left there, I don't even remember the drive to the arena or even confronting you. I vaguely remember talking to Cody but everything else is really a blur." She took a deep shuddering breath. "I'm sure this is too late to be of any good but I'm so incredibly sorry for what I did."

"I accept your apology. You're forgiven." I told her and meant every single word. Lexis's eyes widened in surprise.

"Really? Just like that? You'll just forgive me?" I turned and gently handed Jordan to Cody. I walked up to her. She shrank back a little like I was going to hit her. Here I was, still not fully healed and a little shorter than Lexis, who was perfectly in shape, could snap me in half if she wanted to and she was flinching away from me.

"You didn't really have a choice did you? He probably would have threatened you even if you had refused at the very beginning. Dusty used your feelings for Cody against you, to mold you into his little weapon." She looked back and forth between Cody and I, suddenly nervous.

"I never said it was Dusty. I never said that."

"It's okay." Cody said, walking up to where we were standing. "We already knew that it was him. He pretty much confessed it to us." She dropped her head again.

"I thought by getting on his good side, I could get closer to you, Cody. The only positive I can see is that he seems to really love and care about his son. He made Georgia seem like the spawn of Satan. I'm so sorry." I surprised her again by leaning in and hugging her.

"It's okay." I told her softly. She hesitated a moment before hugging me back. I smiled at her when I step back. "How could you not have a thing for him? Look how sexy he looks holding a baby." Lexis smiled for the first time since she walked into the house as Cody's ears turned a little pink.

"Thank you for being so forgiving even though I didn't deserve it." She smiled again as she peaked at a sleeping Jordan, rubbing his tiny hand softly. "You're an amazing person. Cody is incredibly lucky to have you. Both of you. I hope I'll get to see more of you when my suspension is up." She hugged me again. "I'd better go. Thank you." Before we could say another word, Lexis turned and walked out the door.

"I don't know what I'm more surprised at. The fact that she came here to say she was sorry or at the level my father sunk to try to get what he wanted." Cody said, shifting Jordan back to my arms as we sunk back into the couch. "He totally used her horribly." I nodded absentmindedly, slightly preoccupied by something that Lexis said. Cody wrapped an arm around me and tucked Jordan and I close to his side. He kissed my temple. "You okay, sweetness?" I smiled at him. I wasn't about to tell him the idea I was formulating. I knew he would tell me not to bother because it wouldn't change a thing but I was pretty sure I was going to go ahead with it and hope that Cody wouldn't be mad when he found out.

"Yeah, baby. I'm okay. I just hope that Lexis is going to be okay." He kissed my temple again.

"So do I, Georgie."

* * *

Cody went back to work a couple weeks later. I never really got the chance to miss him because when he wasn't there, my mom, his mom or even Annie, who came to stay for a few days, was always there with me.

When Cody was home and we were alone, with Jordan asleep down the hall, the two of us were trying to rebuild our love life. Physically, I was so ready. It had been nearly five months since Cody and I had been together. But mentally, I didn't feel like I looked good enough for Cody. Yes, breast-feeding Jordan and the small workouts I had been able to get in had helped get rid of most if not all of the baby weight but I still had a scar. It had faded from the angry flaming red it has been right after Jordan had been born to a soft pink. And I was still super self-conscious about it. Cody told me all the time how beautiful I was, but I just didn't feel it. Did I want to be with Cody? God, yes! I just needed to be happy with the new me I was giving to Cody.

* * *

When Jordan was about three months old, I felt like the time was right. I built up my self-confidence and was feeling pretty good about the way my body looked. Now all I needed to do was wait for the right time.

The 'right time' came on a day when Cody had a few off in a row. The night he got home, I let him sleep. Hopefully, if all went well, he'd need all the sleep he could get. When Jordan woke up at 3 AM, I tried to get him to stay in bed.

"You stay here, baby. I got him." Cody held my arm as I went to climb out of the bed.

"Let me, Georgie. I don't get to do this enough. I miss my little guy. I'll get him." He leaned in and kissed me before rolling out of bed and heading towards Jordan's room. At least all he needed was a quick diaper change and a little love before he went back to sleep.

* * *

Early the next afternoon, I laid Jordan down for his nap. My little monkey was a great napper. On a bad day, you got two hours, on a great day, you got four. I was pretty sure we were leaning towards a great day. That gave me and Cody at least three hours of quiet. Because, it was the 'right time'. I shut the door to Jordan's room and quickly headed to our bedroom. I changed into the special outfit I had bought for the occasion. A nearly see-thru baby doll gown, matching panties, which I felt showed how far I had come because my scar peeked out of the top of them and a knee-length red silk robe. I tied the robe together with a pretty bow right in the front. I took a deep breath and sent Cody a text telling him I needed him in our bedroom. He must have thought something was wrong because he was there in a matter of seconds. I smiled as he knocked.

"Georgia? Sweetness, you okay?" He asked as he pushed open the door. "I got…" He stopped short as he walked in. "…your…text." I gave him a wicked grin as he walked to me and touched the bow. "What's this?"

"Open it and find out." Cody pulled on the bow. As the sides fell open I let the robe fall to the floor, much like I had my dress that first night we had made love.

"Wow, Georgie." He said, taking in my outfit.

"You like it?" I asked softly.

"Sweetness, you look so beautiful." He ran his fingertips across my bare stomach through the part in the gown. Goosebumps popped up all over my skin.

"I think we've found our right time, Code. I bought this special for this moment. But only if you still want…" Before I could finish the sentence, Cody had an arm snaked around my waist, a hand buried in my hair, pulling me tight against his body and was kissing me like he hadn't kissed me in months. "Me." I finished as the two of us parted.

"How could you ever think I wouldn't want you, Georgia?" He pressed his hips tighter against mine. "I never stopped wanting you, sweetness." Then he was kissing me again. I moaned against his lips at the feel of his hands skimming across the skin of my hips to my back under the gown. I was vaguely aware of the fact that Cody was moving us back towards the bed. I stroked my hands down his chest to the bottom of his T-shirt. I grabbed the hem and pulled the shirt open over his head, breaking contact with his mouth. Cody smiled for second before repeating the same action with my gown. The moment it hit the floor, his mouth was on mine again. The next thing I knew, I was laying back in the bed with Cody poised above me, kissing down the side of my neck.

"Oh, God yes, Cody." I moaned softly, driving my hands into his hair. I arched into his touch as he palmed my breast, massaging softly. He lifted his head, smiling down at me.

"They're a little bit bigger than I remember, sweetness." Of course that made me smile back at him.

"You can thank your son for that, baby."

"Thank you, Jordan." He said, dropping his head to kiss at the base of my throat. I worked a hand between our bodies to work at the button of his jeans. My hands found Cody's hair again as he started to kiss his way down my body and he took over undoing his own pants. My moans were his encouragement as his mouth blazed across the naked skin of my stomach. I tried not to but I couldn't help but tense up slightly when Cody touched my scar. "Does it still hurt?" He asked softly.

"No." He smoothed his fingertips across the length of it.

"Then why do you flinch when I touch it?" He looked up at me.

"It's just…I don't look the same as I used to, Cody. I guess I'm just afraid that when you see it, you won't look at me the same." He traced the scar again.

"I don't look at you the same anymore."

"Oh." Before I could let sadness sink in, he explained.

"Things have changed between us but only for the better. This lovely little scar is the catalyst of that change. We became a family because of it. I look at you with all the more respect, awe," he pressed a kiss right to the center of my scar and moved so that we were face-to-face again, "and love." He kissed me. "I knew I loved you before but I never thought I would ever have as much love in me as I do for you and Jordan." He kissed me again, this time it turned so very hot and intense. "I love you so much, sweetness." Another kiss.

"I love you too, baby. God, do I love you." I said, wrapping my arms around him, pulling him close. Cody kissed my neck just below my ear as he worked his jeans and boxers off. I arched my body against the hips he pressed tight against me. I moan softly as Cody teased at the edge of my panties. He hooked a finger in one side and pulled it down over my hip only to stop short when our quiet solitude was disrupted by the ringing of our doorbell. Jordan's unhappy and startled cries followed seconds later.

"Damn it!" Cody said softly, dropping his head onto my shoulder. "I'm sorry, sweetness." I rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's okay, baby." He lifted his head. The doorbell rang again.

"I'm going to make whoever is ringing that bell regret that they came here and deprived me of the right to make love to my wife." I just smiled at him.

"I'll make it up to you tonight, Cody." He hit me with his wicked half smile and kiss me before rolling off the bed and pulling on his jeans. I followed suit by putting on my regular robe which dropped to just below my knees. He pulled me close for another kiss.

"No, Georgie, I'm going to make it up to you."

* * *

I popped into Jordan's room to comfort my crying baby boy as Cody headed downstairs to see who was at the door.

"Awe, Jordy, baby. It's okay, darlin'." I scooped him up. The moment I cuddled him to my chest the hard crying stopped. I started to pace the room, rubbing his back soothingly, trying to soften his little whimpers. I finally got him peaceful again and almost asleep with his little head on my shoulder when there was a quiet knock on the door jamb. I turned around to find Cody standing there.

"Who…" I started.

"You should probably come downstairs, Georgia." He held out an arm to me so that I would come lean against his side. "There's someone here to see you." I looked at him in confusion but followed him downstairs nonetheless. I smiled as we walked into the living room and found my mom looking through some of the new pictures of Jordan I had put out.

"Hi, momma." She looked up.

"There's my baby." She said making a beeline for Jordan. I turned him so that she could see his face where it was laying on my shoulder. She talked softly to him for a few moments, gently rubbing his head. Little did I know that she was just trying to distract me from who was really there.

"Georgia?" I slowly turned around.

"Daddy?" He took a step closer towards me. I was suddenly very angry. "What are you doing here?" My grip on Jordan got a little tighter. Cody walked over to stand beside us, ready to step in front and defend us if necessary.

"I tried to ask him about that myself but he said he wanted to talk to us both." Cody said, the anger dripping off of every word.

"You better have come to apologize to us." I said, rubbing Jordan's back, comforting us both.

"I have." I tried not to let the surprise show. That wasn't what I expected. "I realized just how wrong I was and that I not only hurt you, Cody and your mom but I hurt myself too. By being so narrow minded and arrogantly stupid, I missed out on all of the wonderful milestones in my baby girl's life and," he walked a couple of steps closer, "if I didn't come to my senses I was going to miss the life of my grandson." Dad dropped his head to look at his hands. "I realized the other day, I wasn't completely sure of what his name was. Stella has kept everything from me because she didn't think I deserve the right to any of it."

"You don't. After what you tried to do to us, you don't even deserve to be here." Cody told him.

"I know that. I've realized how wrong I was months ago but I didn't come around because I knew you'd still be upset with me."

"Upset is not the word I would've used." Cody grumbled. I turned mom and handed her a sleeping Jordan. I had a feeling that if I didn't step in soon, Cody and dad may come to blows, again. I laid a hand on Cody's arm, rubbing his bicep softly, trying to keep him calm. I turned back to Dad.

"When did you come to this realization, daddy?" He looked Cody in the eyes. Not taunting him but as a show of respect.

"That night in the hospital when Cody knocked me on my ass. No one had ever stood up to me like that before. No one has ever called me out on my bullshit. Then when he turned to talk to your mother, I saw the genuine anguish and pain that he was feeling at the possible idea that he might lose you. When he was trying so hard to hide it. No one could fake what he was emotionally going through.

"I slithered away when no one was looking. I wanted to nurse my aching jaw in private and to sort out everything running through my head. My mind kept flashing to the pain on Cody's face. Then I would think back to all the times I had seen the two of you together and the respect, admiration and pure love I had seen on his face every time he looked at you.

"It dawned on me while I was sitting alone in an empty waiting room, holding a cold can of soda to the side of my face that I fucked up. I fucked everything up. I let my skewed view of how things happened twenty years ago blind me to what was happening right in front of me. That punch knocked me off my high horse and back to reality. I truly am sorry for everything that happened." He turned away and grabbed the folder off the nearby table. He held it out to Cody who hesitantly took it.

"What is this?" He asked.

"I wanted to do something for the two of you. I know that this won't make up for what I did but maybe it's a start." Dad told us. Cody flipped open the folder and read for a moment. He looked back up at dad.

"Is this for real?" Dad nodded.

"I did a little snooping and found out where you had the loan." Cody handed me the folder. Inside was the deed to our house with a receipt on top saying that the loan was paid in full. Dad had just paid off our house for us.

"Oh my God, daddy." I said softly. He smiled.

"That's not all that's in there." I flipped through the papers and came across a check. I pulled it out and handed it to Cody. "That is a check for all the previous payments that you made. All of them. Plus interest and a little extra for the furniture and paint I'm sure he had to buy." My dad just essentially bought our house for us.

"Daddy, you didn't…" I started.

"I know I didn't have to but I wanted to. I know you don't need me because I know you and Cody can take care of your little family. I've seen it for myself. You're doing an amazing job. I'm so proud of you, pumpkin." Cody rubbed my back softly.

"Thank you, daddy." He waved off my thanks like it wasn't necessary.

"It's something I should've done in the beginning." He turned back to the table and retrieved a small envelope. "I have one more thing for you guys and then me and your mother will get out of your hair." He handed me the envelope. I opened it up and inside was about ten pictures. At first glance, they were just pictures of the little boy and a little girl. They were playing and hiding and posing for the camera. But in each picture they were glued to each other side. I instantly recognized myself is the little girl. The little boy was so familiar, I just knew his face. My eyes widened as it dawned on me. I flipped over the picture. It confirmed what I saw.

_'Georgia and Cody Runnels'_

"Daddy?" I questioned.

"I was cleaning some stuff in my office a few weeks ago. I found those in the file of that deal that fell through. They're from that summer. You and I toured with the company those couple of months while I worked in getting the deal to come together." I handed Cody the pictures. He started to smile as he flipped through them.

"I remember this summer. I thought I would see my friend again the next summer. But you didn't come back and my dad wouldn't call your dad to let you come play." He slipped the pictures back into the envelope. "I can't believe I didn't remember meeting you until I saw those pictures." I wrapped an arm around his waist and he in turn draped his arm over my shoulder.

"I didn't remember meeting you either, Code." I laid a hand on his bare chest. "Don't feel bad." He smiled and kissed my temple. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw dad smile.

"To be honest, I forgot that it was you too, Cody. But I do remember the little boy who instantly became her friend. I saw something building with you guys that summer. You two were inseparable. Where one was, so was the other. If we hadn't kept you guys apart, this love would have built over the years and I'm positive that we would still be right where we are today. With you two together, married with a beautiful baby. I'm sorry, Georgia, Cody. I'm sorry I kept you apart then and I tried to tear you apart now. I hope one day you'll be able to forgive me, pumpkin." I walked right to him, hugging him tightly.

"We're getting there, daddy. We're so getting there." I said softly to him. He hugged me back fiercely, kissing the top of my head. He still held on to me with one arm as Cody came over.

"It takes a strong man to stand up to someone that he knows is wrong and fight for his family." Dad held out his hand. "I respect the hell out of you." Cody shook his outstretched hand.

"The first time you hurt Georgia like you did before, we go back to how it was. As long she's happy, I'm happy. But I'll have you know, I'm still furious about you sending that bastard, Wellington to our house."

"I understand completely. He crossed the line. He was never supposed to touch her in that sense. In my mind, he was just supposed to convince her to leave you. Again, I take full responsibility for that." Dad said. Cody nodded that he could accept that.

"I have a confession to make." Mom said quietly. The whole time, she had been rocking Jordan, keeping him asleep. She walked over and handed me my sleeping baby boy. "When I found out what Douglas did to you," she said to me, "I pulled some strings and did some dealing."

"What did you do, Stella?" My dad asked.

"I got Douglas transferred to one of our sister hospitals in Washington state." She said with a satisfied smile.

"You got him as far away as possible and still kept him within the country. Nice move, Mrs. Cooper." Cody said hugging her with an arm around her shoulders. She swatted at him, laughing.

"Stella, Cody. Stella." She corrected him.

"Sorry. Stella." He said kissing her cheek.

"That was completely underhanded and devious." Dad said, his face breaking out into a huge smile. "I love it." He let me go and stepped up to kiss her. I caught Cody's eye and nodded to dad and then looked down at Jordan. He smiled and mouthed, ' If you want to. I'm okay with it.'

"Daddy?" He turned back to me. I smiled. "Would you like to hold your grandson?"

"More than anything, pumpkin." He sat down at one end of the sofa. I couldn't help but smile as I lay Jordan in his arms.

"Just so you're clear, it's Jordan Parker Runnels." I told him, stepping away. With all the jostling back and forth, Jordan was more awake but surprisingly, he wasn't upset at being held by someone he didn't know.

"Hi, Jordan." Dad said, talking softly to him. "Aren't you a beautiful little boy." He said with a tear filled smile. Jordan must have been able to sense that dad was important to him. Normally he was a little nervous around new people but he had none of that. Cody and I both smiled as Jordan reached out and grabbed dad's bright red and blue silk tie in his little fist. Before anyone could warn him, Jordan shoved the fist full of tie into his mouth. Instead of the anger I expected, dad laughed.

"Does it taste good, champ?" He asked, playing with Jordan's kicking feet. I fought to cover the tears in my eyes as mom took the seat beside dad. I let the tears of happiness go while I watched my mom and dad play with their grandson. Cody even thought to snap a few pictures for me. He slipped his arm around my shoulders, kissing my temple.

"Jordan's the one that's going to bring everyone around and together. Everything is going to come back to a good place with everyone. And our little boy is the reason." Cody said softly to me. I turned and smiled up at him, pulling him down to kiss me.

"I hope you're right, baby. I hope you're right."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I'm doing. Just a tip, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll post the next chapter. And just to let you know, there's only one more chapter left. Thanks! =^.^=**


	14. Chapter 14

**I want to give a big shout out to everyone that has read the story so far. I want to send a special 'Thank You' to psion53, Livin on the EDGE, The Strike Back Princess, lilasskickersmom and foldintothenight. You guys rock! \m/~.~\m/ Sorry it has taken me so long to post a new chapter. I've been working on a new story and totally forgot. Sorry! Here is the final chapter, 14. Enjoy!**

Three months later:

Dusty walked into the house, heading straight back to the kitchen to say hello to Michelle. He found her emptying the dishwasher. She smiled as she heard him walking in.

"Hi, honey." She said, kissing him. "Have a good day?" She asked as he sat at the table. Knowing him well, Michelle, a few moments later, set a fresh cup of coffee down in front of him.

"Yeah, I guess so. What did you do today?" Michelle sat across from him with her own cup.

"Not much. I…went out for a little while, but that was about all." Dusty mentally translated 'went out' to mean that she had gone to see Cody's…he didn't know what to call them. He settled with wife and son. He knew that Cody wasn't there because he was on the road. He still has his connections and inside people. He knew how proud Cody was of his little family and he loved to show them off.

"Oh? How was it?" He asked. She let a faraway smile take over her face.

"It was lovely." She took a sip of her coffee. "Oh, I almost forgot, I put your mail in your office. There were a couple letters and one of those big manila envelopes." Dusty's ears perked up at that.

"Good. Good." He stood up and kissed her cheek. He grabbed his coffee cup. "I'm gonna head on to my office. Call me when dinner's ready."

"Okay honey." Michelle called after him. Dusty quickly made his way to his office, locking himself inside. Sitting down at his desk, he tossed aside the two letters and flipped over the manila envelope. He instantly recognized the neat feminine handwriting spelling out his name. He smoothed his hand over the outside, knowing exactly what the envelope held. He remembered when he had gotten the first one five months ago.

* * *

Dusty flipped the padded envelope over and over in his hands hoping something would jump out at him telling him who it was from. He didn't recognize the handwriting and there was no return address. He shrugged and slowly opened the envelope. He cautiously dumped the contents on the desk top. Pictures, a piece of paper with a copy of a receipt on it and a folded letter spilled out across the desk's shiny surface. He picked up the picture of an adorable infant. He dropped it back to the desk, unfolding the letter and began to read.

_Mr. Runnels: _

_I know I'm probably the last person you ever thought you'd hear from but here I am nonetheless. I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be someone that you like or even care about. Whether or not you like it I'm in your son's life and I don't plan on going anywhere. He and I are a true family now and nothing is going to change that. But you liking me is not the reason for this letter._

_I'm writing to you because of your son, Cody. Because of Cody and your grandson, Jordan. Right now, Cody may not see it because he is angry at your actions but Cody needs his father. The two of you have been close for too long to just not talk anymore. Not only does Cody need you but Jordan is going to need you too. I definitely want you in Jordan's life. A little boy needs his grandfather. Just as a man needs his father._

_I hope that you will eventually come around and reach out to Cody. We both know how he is. His stupid pride will never let him come to you. I'm not asking you and I to become friends. Hell, you can go on pretending I don't even exist. I just ask that you try and tolerate me when you are around Cody and Jordan. Just for their sake._

_I also wanted you to know, that the trust fund that I have is slowly being filtered into an account I have opened for my son. Every week, $1000 gets transferred to Jordan's account and every year on his birthday, there will be an additional deposit corresponding to the age he will turn. By the time Jordan is 18, he will have a good amount in his own trust account. We both know that you don't trust me in the slightest so I have enclosed a copy of the first deposit._

_Along with the receipt, I've also enclosed pictures of Jordan. These pictures are from the day he was born until now. I believe that you deserve the right to see him grow up._

_Whether or not you decide to come back into Cody's life is not going to stop me from sending you a packet of pictures like this every week. I'll take as many pictures as I can and send you a copy of each one._

_Please consider at least calling Cody and saying hello. I know, even if he doesn't say it, he misses you. I just pray that despite your hatred of me, your love of your son and grandson can rise above that._

_-Georgia-_

He tossed the letter back on the desk and leaned back in his chair. The girl had nerve. He'd give her that. Trying to tell him how to run his life. Dusty was tempted to just shove everything back in the envelope and throw it away. But he was drawn to the pictures of the baby. He reached for the one that lay closest to him on the edge of the desk. The picture was of the infant boy asleep in what he assumed was Cody's lap. He just stared at the picture for a moment before he realized why he was drawn to them. The child was the spitting image of Cody when he was an infant, right down to the fact he was sure he had a picture of Cody asleep in his lap just like that. He flipped the picture over and noticed that she had labeled and dated each one.

He sorted the pictures and put them in chronological order. The back of the first picture listed his name as Jordan Parker Runnels, it listed his birthday, his birth weight and the time he was born. As he studied the pictures one by one, he knew he was wrong about the paternity of his grandson. He also noticed that she took extra care to only include pictures of Jordan alone and Jordan with Cody. There wasn't a single picture of her inside.

That girl wasn't stupid. She knew that if the picture had her in it, he was less likely to keep it. No, this girl wasn't nearly as dumb as he thought.

* * *

Dusty had kept every single picture that she sent him. The envelopes had arrived like clockwork every week. Every envelope contained a handful of pictures, a copy of the receipt and small letter, normally just a paragraph or two, updating him on Jordan and Cody's lives. He'd never admit it but he looks forward to these packages.

He ripped open the top to the envelope, reaching inside and pulling out his prize. There are about six pictures, her note, the copy and something new this time, a CD. He turned and shoved the copy into his shredder. He had already decided to match her birthday gifts for Jordan every year. Next he unfolded the letter.

_Jordan turned six months old this week. He's gotten more advanced in his babbling and he's started the back-and-forth rocking on his hands and knees. Crawling can't be far behind. Once he gets mobile, there will be no stopping that little monkey. I decided to try something new this time and I sent you a couple of videos so you could see more for yourself. (I'm sorry that it's my voice on the videos. It was a last-minute decision. I'll get Cody to do it next time.)_

_Speaking of Cody, I know you've been watching him so you know how amazing he is doing. There's no way that you're not so incredibly proud of him, just like the rest of his family is. He's actually due for another run as the Intercontinental Champion. He told me that holding this championship could lead to a big title run for him. But I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know. I just wish you two were able to enjoy this together._

_I hope that things can work out between the two of you before Jordan's birthday. I know they'd both love to have you there._

_-Georgia-_

He still had to give it to her. She was still fighting for her family and asking nothing for herself. He could tell, from the way she told him about them and the pictures she took, her world revolved around Cody and Jordan. She would fight to the death to protect them.

Dusty picked up the pictures and smiled. Most of them were of just Jordan. All but two. One was of Cody laid back, asleep on the sofa with Jordan asleep on his chest, his little fist holding on to Cody's T-shirt while Cody's hand was spread across his back holding him close.

The other was probably his favorite. Cody was laying on his stomach on the floor and Jordan was on his knees holding on to Cody's head. Jordan was giggling and causing Cody to smile. He put that one on the top of his pile and turned on his computer. He slipped the CD in the drive and waited for it to come up. Once it finally did, Dusty clicked on the first video.

The screen came up and he smiled as Jordan came up on the screen. He was looking right at the camera with his bright blue eyes, light colored hair and a face that reminded him so much of Cody's at that age it hurt. He looked to be sitting up on a sofa, babbling away.

"What'cha got there, baby?" She asked him. He smiled at her and kept babbling. Dusty saw her hand reach in the shot and grabbed the toy in his lap. She held up the action figure. "Is it daddy?" Jordan held his hands out for it saying, 'da da da da'. He heard her laugh softly and give Jordan the toy. He kept saying, 'da da da' until he got the toy close enough and put Cody's head right into his mouth.

"Jordan." She said sternly but not harshly. "What did I say?" She pulled the toy out of his mouth. "We don't chew on daddy." She turned the figure in his hand so that she could use Cody's outstretched arm to gently tap him on the nose. "Do we?" He giggled like it was the funniest thing ever. "No we don't." She said, tapping him softly on the nose with every word. He just giggled harder. He could hear her laughing at Jordan and was surprised to find himself laughing too. The video ended after she tapped his nose a couple more times.

The next video, only about 30 or 40 seconds long, started with Jordan on the floor on his hands and knees. "Jordan." She said in a singsong voice. He looked up at her. "Hi, baby." The camera jiggle the little she got down on the floor near him. "Are you gonna crawl for mommy today?" He just smiled at her as she talked to him in that sweet voice of hers. "How about for daddy? Can you crawl for daddy, baby?" He started to rock back and forth like he was getting ready to take off but decided no and sat back on his butt instead. That's where the video ended.

Dusty shut off his computer and leaned back in his chair. He didn't expect to watch those videos and have been hit him as hard as they did. He scrubbed hand over his face. What had he done? He had let the stupid pride isolate him from his family. Jordan was six months old and he had never held him. He hadn't said a word or even seen his son in the entire time either. He couldn't believe he was about to admit it, but Georgia was right. He needed to see Cody. He quickly formed a plan in his head. Dusty was going to do this his way. He just hoped Cody and his family forgave him.

* * *

"Open up, Jordy. Come on, baby." I said trying to coax Jordan to take a bite of the baby food. "Peas are yummy." I tried to put the spoon in his mouth only to have him turn his head at the last second.

"They must not be as yummy as you think." Cody said, a laugh in his voice. I sniffed the jar. It smelled like peas.

"The guy at the grocery store told me this was supposed to be the best brand."

"Maybe he's never tried it." I stirred it and got another spoonful.

"Okay, Jordan. Try this for mommy." He turned his head again. "But daddy likes it." Cody looked up from his own food.

"I do?" As he spoke, I stuck Jordan's spoon in his mouth.

"See?" I was about to get another spoonful but stopped to laugh at the look of disgust on his face.

"Oh hell, Georgia. That's nasty." He drank down half of his orange juice in one go. "Please stop trying to feed that to him." He took another big drink. "I understand why he won't eat it. Blue wouldn't even eat that."

"Please. Blue will eat anything." I dipped my finger in the jar and held my hand down to Blue who was curled up under Jordan's highchair. He leaned up and sniffed my finger. I'm pretty sure even he made a face before he went and hid under Cody's chair. "Okay, guys. It can't be that bad." I licked the peas off my finger. It had to be the grossest thing I had ever tried. "Oh my God. That's horrible."

"Told you." Cody said, pointing at the jar with his fork.

"Peas have been nowhere near this." I stood up and kissed the top of Jordan's head as I wiped away the green mess from his face. "I'm sorry, baby." I tossed the jar in the trash. I turned to the sink and washed the nastiness off of his spoon. "What if I get you some of that applesauce you like?" He just grinned at me, showing off the three little adorable bottom teeth he had as I set his spoon down on the table and headed to the fridge. I stopped just short of opening it when we heard the knocking at the front door. Blue shot from under the table, running towards the sound.

"You expecting someone, sweetness?" Cody asked, standing up.

"No. Were you?" I asked. He shook his head and started for the door. I looked over as Jordan made little whimpering noises, reaching after Cody. He looked up at me as I came back to stand beside his highchair. He lifted his arms and made the same noise to me. I stroked his hair softly as I unbuckled him. "Daddy will be back in a second, baby." I told him, lifting him out of his seat. I was about to sit back down but stopped when I heard Cody's angry voice.

"What are you doing here, dad?" Dad? Dusty was here? This probably wouldn't be good. I adjusted my hold on Jordan and settled him on my hip. I gave him his pacifier so he wouldn't give us away. Plus the pacifier made him sleepy. Maybe I could get him to go down early for a nap. I rolled my eyes at myself and clicked out of mommy mode for just a second to focus on the bigger issue happening in my living room at the moment. I tucked Jordan a little closer and walked quietly into the room.

"I told you, son. Where are they? I came to see them." Dusty said.

"Are you kidding? You don't even like her much less care about her." Cody told him.

"Are they here?" I could feel the tension between them and I wasn't even close to being near them. I came around the corner to see them both standing by the couch, arms crossed, facing off against each other. I wondered if they knew how much they resembled each other in that moment.

"Cody?" I said softly, drawing their attention to me. "What's going on?" I saw Dusty's gaze soften the moment he caught sight of Jordan.

"He says he came to see you and Jordan. But I can't help but remember what happened the last time he came here." I slowly made my way over to them.

"I don't think he's here for me, Cody." The moment we got within reach, Jordan held out his arms for Cody to take him. I shifted Jordan over to him and stepped back. "I'll be in the office." I turned away but before I could even take a step, Dusty spoke to me.

"That's where you're wrong, Georgia." That gave me pause. I don't think except for when we first met he had never called me by my name. I turned back around. "I'm here because of what you've been doing."

"Again, are you kidding me? You came out here with more of this crap?" Cody said angrily. Dusty looked at me.

"I thought after all these weeks you would've told him." I looked down at my hands. Crap. I really didn't expect to get away with this for so long. To be honest, I didn't expect Dusty to even keep any of the packages. "I guess that's a no then." He turned away from us to look at the pictures I had on a side table and on the wall above it while Cody looked at me.

"Georgia? Sweetness, what's going on?" Cody asked me. I didn't want to look up on the chance that he was actually really mad at me.

"You see this picture here, son?" Dusty said, pointing to my favorite picture of Cody and Jordan on floor, laughing at me. Jordan had his hand on Cody's head holding on. I love that picture. Cody nodded.

"Yeah. What about it?" Dusty turn back to face us.

"I have that exact one hanging by my desk in my office at home. In fact, I have pretty much all of these pictures." I could see the confusion on Cody's face.

"What do you mean you have these pictures? How is that possible? These are our pictures. We haven't seen or heard from you in six months." Dusty nodded.

"That's true. But Georgia's been in contact with me." Cody turned to me.

"Is that true, Georgia?" He seemed very skeptical of his father's story. I just nodded slightly. "Are you fuckin' out of your mind? After all the shit he put us through?" He yelled. His loud voice scared Jordan and he started to cry. This time he reached out for me. I didn't hesitate to pluck him out of Cody's arms and back away from his anger. I cooed softly until Jordan calm down. I stroked the back of his head as he laid it on my shoulder. I was surprised when Dusty spoke up to defend me.

"Every week, since Jordan has been a month old, I have gotten a package in the mail. It's always had a handful of pictures, a copy of your receipt and a small note. Did you know she set up a trust fund for Jordan and she's slowly filtering her own money into it?" Dusty glanced at me. "And I plan on matching every birthday deposit you do."

"Wait. I know about the trust but how do you?" Cody asked.

"Georgia told me. Here," he pulled out a folded up piece of paper from his pocket that I recognized as the very first letter I wrote him, "read this. Then maybe you'll understand how much she loves you and Jordan." Cody took the letter and began to read. He kept his face as neutral as possible. When he finished, he folded the letter back up. "Despite everything I did to you guys, she thought I still deserved the right to see you and Jordan. She's never asked for anything from me but for us to be happy." Cody finally looked at me.

"Georgia?" He asked, wanting my reasons. "After everything…"

"He's your father, Cody. I can't bear the thought of you not having him in your life because of me. You've been his of lot longer than you've been mine. He doesn't deserve to miss out on you and Jordan's lives. I'm willing to stay away if that's what he wants just as long as he's good to you and our son. I can live with him not liking me but I don't want you not to have your dad, Cody."

"And that is precisely when I realized I was completely wrong about you, Georgia." Dusty said. "You never once asked me to like you. You never asked me for money like I always assumed you would once the baby was born. You never wanted anything from me. Even though you knew there was a possibility I'd never liked you, you never stopped. You never backed off either." He looked at Cody. "I finally understand when she said it was about love. I'm not sure anyone loves their family as much as Georgia loves you and Jordan. I hope you know that."

"Yeah, I do." Cody said nodding. He took me and Jordan in his arms. He kissed me, laying his forehead against mine.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, baby. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought he deserved the right to know." I whispered to him. Cody just grinned.

"It's okay, sweetness. Thank you for loving us." That earned him another kiss.

"Thank you for letting me."

"The three of you are exactly what a family, a perfect family should look like." The two of us finally looked away from each other. Cody tried to move but sometime when he was holding us, Jordan grabbed onto Cody's shirt in his small fist, keeping him close to us. "I know it's probably the case of too little too late but I want to apologize. I want to tell you how sorry I am that I misjudged you, Georgia. Cody was right. I took all of my anger at a long-ago situation and placed it on you, acting as if you were the actual cause." Dusty smiled. "I have to give it to you though, you never backed down. You always stood up for yourself and the ones you love.

"You and you alone, Georgia, are the main reason I realized I was wrong. You are the reason I came to apologize today. And you are the reason that I hope, someday I'll be allowed back into y'all's lives."

"Before this goes any farther, dad…about what you did to Lexis..." Dusty held up his hand to stop Cody.

"I'm on my way to cleaning that up. I also apologize to her and I'm getting her what I promised. She's getting a title run in the next few months. I made sure she knew it was my fault that things got as out of hand as they did." He turned and headed towards the door. "So, I'm gonna go. Thank you for letting me say my piece." He opened the door like he was really going to leave. I couldn't let that happen.

"Dusty, wait." I gave Jordan over to Cody and walked over to him as he froze in place. He didn't say a word, just looked down at me. "Don't go. We were just having lunch. Stay. I'll make you something." He smiled.

"I'd like that." He shut the door. As soon as he turned back around, I followed my instinct and hugged him. To my surprise, he hugged me back.

"Thank you for coming. He may not say it but I know it means the world to Cody." He squeezed me softly.

"No. Thank you, Georgia. You took care of my boy when I didn't. I can see that you make him incredibly happy. I owe you my gratitude." I smiled back at him.

"You being here is all I need."

* * *

Six months later:

I found Cody sitting at the desk in our office. I walked up behind him and wrap my arms around his shoulders. I pressed a kiss to his cheek before laying my own cheek against his.

"Why are you hiding in here?" I asked. I felt him smile.

"I'm not hiding." He lifted my hand from his chest, kissing the back of it before turning the computer so I could see. He was downloading pictures. "Just looking through the pictures from the party." I let him go as he twirled the chair to face me. He grinned up at me and pulled me gently down into his lap, kissing me softly. "So how is the birthday boy?" I settled closer to him, running my fingers through the hair at the back of his head.

"He's down for the count. Poor little monkey nearly fell asleep in the tub. Of course, he wouldn't have been in there so long if it hadn't taken me three times washing his hair to get all the cake out of it." I said, making Cody laugh. "Thank goodness we keep his hair short. I'd probably still be scrubbing if we didn't." Cody laughed again as I leaned closer to him. I reached out and click the button for the next picture which just happened to be a picture of Jordan digging into his birthday cake. He was smiling with cake already smeared all over his face. I could barely believe our baby boy was already a year old.

The last year had been utterly amazing. Not only had Cody and I welcomed Jordan into our lives but our families had finally put all their stupid differences aside. They had finally made peace. And it was all because of our beautiful little boy.

Jordan's birthday party was far from the first time our entire families had come together. And surprisingly, it had been neither Cody's nor my doing. Dusty had been the one to set it up. He had actually gone to my father and told him that he wanted to start over and put everything behind them. My dad instantly agreed. That had been over five months ago. They had actually completely forgiving each other and were now cultivating a great new friendship.

I clicked through a few more pictures, smiling at our friends and family enjoying the afternoon in our backyard. Everyone is getting along and no one was even thinking about starting a fight or arguing about anything. We were actually a full happy family now. I clicked again and came to a picture of Cody, Jordan and I.

"I think this one's my favorite." Cody said. He clicked a few times and made the picture the background on his computer. He hugged me close. I laid my cheek against his shoulder, running my hand up and down his T-shirt covered chest. He laid his chin on the top of my head.

"Do you remember what you told me about Jordan bringing everyone together?" I asked quietly.

"I remember." Cody said just as softly.

"You were right, baby." I leaned back so I could look at his face. "Everyone came together today for Jordan. He brought them all here and they were so happy." Cody cupped my cheek.

"Don't underestimate your part in this, Georgie. Look what you did with dad." I just smiled. I was pretty proud of that. "You helped the most stubborn one of all see the error of his ways." He kissed me.

"Do you think we'll always be this happy?" I asked, leaning back against Cody's shoulder contently.

"No." I sat up again.

"No?" He kissed me again.

"No. We're gonna be so much happier. Every day is just going to get better and better."

"You and I are gonna make every day the best we can."

"Perfect, sweetness." I kissed him deeply.

"Yes, Cody. We're going to make them perfect."

**I would really appreciate if you keep the reviews coming. Please take a couple of seconds and let me know how I did. All you have left is the epilogue and we're done. =^.^=**


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue:**

Two and a half years later:

I set Jordan down and shut the door behind me. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he was off running towards the den calling out for his best friend, Blue. Jordan and Blue were nearly inseparable whenever we were home. From the moment Jordan learned to walk, where ever he wandered Blue was right there by his side.

"Don't run, Jordan." I yelled after him. I heard Blue bark in greeting as he was found. I heard running feet and clicking claws as they headed back my way. I snagged the back of Jordan's shirt as he ran past me. "What did I say about running in the house?" He looked up at me sheepishly, knowing he had broken the rules.

"Sorry, mommy." He said. It was hard to stay mad at him when he looked at me with those big blue eyes. I let go of his shirt to stroke his hair.

"It's okay, baby. I just don't want you to fall and get hurt."

"Okay, mommy. No more running." Blue stood on his back legs with his front legs propped on my thigh so that I would rub his head.

"Why don't you and I go watch a movie while we wait?" I asked Jordan. He got excited.

"Can we watch Batman?" Cody had started watching the Batman cartoons with Jordan when he was home. Jordan was now obsessed. Everything was and had to be Batman. We recently redid his room in what else but a Batman theme. The only thing that wasn't Batman with the blue stuffed hippo that was really out of his reach. Yes, the same hippo that Lexis had brought to him that day. Po as he was called was never too far from Jordan. I kicked off my shoes by the front door.

"Sure, Jordy. Let's go watch some Batman." I followed him and Blue into the den and popped in his current favorite DVD. Jordan, Blue and Po curled up in the armchair that he claimed as his as soon as he was able to climb into it. The only time he sat on the sofa was when he was watching TV with daddy. Jordan always had to sit in daddy's lap when they watched Batman together.

I laid back on the sofa as the familiar theme music started to play. I smiled as I watched Jordan sing-along with the song as he rubbed Blue's head where it lay in his lap. I let my mind drift to thoughts of my family and friends.

Annie and Randy had been married for a couple of years now. They have actually gotten engaged the night of Jordan's first birthday party. They had been married a few months later and that next year welcomed their own child, a beautiful little girl named Emma.

Ava and Ted surprised us a few months after Jordan had been born. We were invited to what we all assumed was an everyday barbecue. They had used that as a ruse. Once we got there they sprung it on us that this was actually their wedding. They were married right there on the spot in their own backyard. Ava had confided in me that they were now talking about having a little one of their own.

Becky had announced a temporary leave from the ring early last year only to reveal a few weeks later that her and Dave were expecting a baby. They now had an adorable little boy named Evan. Becky was seriously contemplating not going back to the ring. She seemed to love being a stay at home mommy too much.

Lexis was in a very happy relationship with Phil, better known to the rest of the world as CM Punk. After that day that she came to our house and apologized, she and I had become friends. I had invited her with me and the girls once after I had become close with her. Once Becky and Ava had gotten to know the REAL Lexis away from the shows, they actually liked her a great deal. Now the four of us were the Four Musketeers.

That brought me to Cody's and my parents. Our moms were still as close as they ever were. Our dads now...those two were now the best of friends. Dad had a new golf partner and Dusty had a new buddy to go to sporting events with. It would be nothing for the two of them to jet off across the country just to catch a game. And with both of their connections, they never had trouble getting amazing seats. Dusty had even gotten dad back into wrestling. Dad would never tell us who was his favorite but we were safe in narrowing it down to either Randy or Cody.

I was brought out of my daydreams when Blue barked. Two seconds later we heard a car door shut. Jordan jumped out of his chair.

"Mommy, is it Daddy?" He asked, the excitement literarily vibrating out of him. I glanced at the clock. He was right on time.

"Yeah, baby. I think it is." He jumped up and down, excited.

"I can give him the present?" I plopped him up on the sofa to tie his, what else, Batman shoes.

"Yes, Jordan. You can give it to him." I grabbed the small thin box off the table as I heard the door open.

"Hey? Is anyone home?" Cody called out.

"Here you go, Jordan." I handed him the box as he slid out of the chair. "We're in here, Code." I called out. Again, as soon as Jordan's feet touch the floor, he took off running. I stood up. "No running!" I just let my voice fade is he just kept running anyway. Cody appeared in the doorway just as Jordan got there. He dropped his bag and scooped Jordan up in his arms.

"Hey, buddy." Cody said as little arms snaked around his neck holding him tight.

"I missed you, daddy." Jordan said softly, making me smile.

"I missed you too, Jordan." Jordan lifted his head.

"You miss mommy too?" He asked. Cody smiled at me.

"Of course. I always miss mommy." He noticed the box in Jordan's hand. "What'cha got there, Jord?" He said, tapping the lid.

"Present for you."

"For me?" Jordan nodded with a little grin.

"It's from mommy." Cody set him down. This time Jordan walked over to me. I didn't hesitate to lift him up in my arms, cuddling him close.

"What's the occasion?"

"No certain occasion. Just an I love you gift. Is that reason enough?" I asked.

"That's always reason enough." I rubbed Jordan's back as Cody untied the little bow and opened the top. I saw a look of surprise on his face. "Is this what I think it is?" He asked. I nodded as I started to tear up. "Are you sure?" I nodded again. Cody's smile got huge as he sets the positive pregnancy test on the side table and took me and Jordan into his arms. He kissed me softly.

"Maybe we can have your little girl this time." I said softly.

"Only if she's just like you, Georgie." He laid a hand on Jordan's back as he kissed me again. "I love you, sweetness."

"I love you too, baby." I stroked his cheek. "Perfect?" He smiled and kissed me again.

"Yeah," he smiled at Jordan and then back at me, love shining brightly in his eyes, "everything's perfect."

**I just want to say an enormous THANK YOU to everyone who read this story. You have made me feel really amazing about what I have written. I can't thank you enough. I truly love all of you!**

**Till next time...Love, =^.^= **


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